Trump pardons drive a big, burgeoning business for lobbyists

Many clemency recipients have been people with the means to elevate their case — allies, donors, celebrities and former politicians.

There is a process for vetting pardon applications through the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, but presidents have not always followed it.

Some of the pardons Trump is granting, involving people currently incarcerated, would not be able to make it through the typical process. Unless the Justice Department grants a waiver, the regulations say that petitioners need to wait until five years after either the conviction or the end of their sentence, and they place a premium on acceptance of responsibility.

As of this week, there are 6,394 applications for commutations and 1,529 applications for pardons.

Not every Trump-aligned lobbyist is eager to take pardon work; some who have turned down offers said they have passed them along to a small handful of Trump supporters who then help the pardon-seeker get on the president’s radar.

In some cases, referral fees are paid to the lobbying firms even if they are not directly engaged to do the work, according to three people familiar with the process.

“There are others, like us, who have turned down a bunch of that work, but generally the way that works is that they get referred to others who are helping,” said a Washington-based lobbyist whose firm has been approached by people seeking a pardon.

The person said that roughly half their client inquiries in recent months have been for pardon help. In the past, it was roughly 1 in 50 client solicitations.

The Trump ally who is also a lobbyist said their firm is not taking pardon clients out of concern that they could face blowback when the political winds inevitably change. Another lobbyist said they turn down pardon work because it feels “sketchy.”

Getting in front of the right people

In a case that drew significant attention this week, Trump pardoned reality-TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted in 2022 on fraud and tax evasion-related charges. The two built a national following through their reality show “Chrisley Knows Best.”

The pardons came after a public pressure campaign led by their daughter Savannah, a prominent Trump supporter with nearly 3 million followers on Instagram.

Key to reaching Trump is pushing a message that will appeal to the president, particularly one around a politicization of justice by Democrats or overzealous prosecutors.

“Weaponization is real,” said Tolman, who is now a Fox News contributor and the executive director of the conservative-leaning criminal justice reform group Right on Crime. “If you are in power and you are willing to use the power of the prosecution to go after your political adversaries, how do we fix it?”

His comments came during a 2024 panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference focused on the “weaponization” of the justice system. The panel also included now-Attorney General Pam Bondi and Savannah Chrisley, who used the platform to talk about her parents’ case.

Tolman has become one of the go-tos for help when people are seeking Trump pardons. He helped the Chrisleys, as well as Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. At the end of Trump’s first term, he also lobbied Trump to pardon Ross Ulbricht, who in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison on narcotics and money-laundering charges related to his dark web marketplace Silk Road. Getting Ulbricht out of prison became a cause célèbre to many on the political right who thought he was unjustly targeted by the justice system.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised to pardon Ulbricht, and he did so as one of his first acts after taking office.

Tolman did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Other Trump allies who have played influential roles in the pardon process over the past few weeks include Washington attorney Adam Katz, who previously represented Giuliani and helped secure a sentence commutation for a California businesswoman in Trump’s first term.

Katz did not return a request seeking comment, but lobbyists interviewed by NBC News named him, along with Tolman, as two of the people to whom they refer pardon work.

Corcoran Partners, a Florida-based lobbying firm whose managing partner includes Matt Blair, the brother of Trump deputy chief of staff James Blair, has also registered to lobby on federal pardon issues for the first time. In March, Matt Blair’s firm registered to lobby on “pardon” issues for Juno Empire Inc., a Miami-based company that is identified in federal lobbying records as a “medical billing advocate.” It’s not clear what this company does or what its issue is, and there was no contact information available for Juno. Corcoran Partners did not return a request for comment.

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone also registered in Febru to lobby for Roger Ver, who is nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” and, if extradited from Spain, faces up to 109 years in prison for, among other things, allegations that he tried to evade nearly $50 million in tax payments. It’s the first time Stone’s firm, Drake Ventures, formally registered to lobby on pardon issues, records show. An attorney for Ver did not return a request for comment.

Some lawyers also see new hope for their clients in Trump’s willingness to issue pardons. Tim Parlatore, a former member of Trump’s legal team, represented Adm. Robert Burke, who was convicted in May of bribery. Parlatore told NBC News that he had unsuccessfully attempted to get Justice Department leadership to reconsider the Burke case before it went to trial, and that he’d try to secure a pardon now that Burke has been convicted.

“I think I have a great appeal for Burke, but will I go and ask for a pardon? Absolutely! You’d be crazy not to,” he said. “The way that that case was investigated and presented, I believe, was fundamentally unfair.”

Parlatore said he wanted to “pursue all possible remedies” for his client.

“I’ll go to call people and try to figure this thing out, whether it’s Ed Martin, Alice Johnson,” he said, referring to Trump’s pardon attorney and his more informal “pardon czar.” “I just want to make sure that that gets in front of the right people to make a decision.”

‘Easier after Hunter’s pardon’

The president’s pardon power, a vestige of the British monarchy, is largely unchecked. Trump isn’t the first person to face criticism for controversial pardons.

But the perception that Trump is leaning into rewarding supporters was boosted last week when Martin, Trump’s current pardon attorney, openly signaled the political motivations for the pardon given to Scott Jenkins. The former Virginia sheriff was facing 10 years in prison after a federal jury found him guilty of taking $75,000 in return for doling out law enforcement authority to local businessmen, as well as two undercover FBI special agents.

“No MAGA left behind,” Martin posted on X after the pardon was announced.

One staffer familiar with the pardon process said Martin and the administration were trying to “undo the damage from weaponization,” often choosing to pardon people they felt were unfairly targeted.

“You have a president who’s going to exercise his presidential powers that he has from the Constitution, whether or not there’s some guidebook,” they said. “He does it on trade, he does it on immigration, and he does it everywhere.”

That staffer and other Trump allies argue that it was Biden’s use of the power that has set the precedent under which they are currently operating. Biden pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 8,000 people, including to his son Hunter, who was set to be sentenced on federal gun charges just weeks before the pardon was issued. On the way out of office, he also issued pre-emptive pardons for some members of his family, worried Trump would try to prosecute them.

An administration official called Biden’s pardon decisions an “absolutely earth-shattering departure from presidential norms.”

Trump supporters argue the potential hit to a president’s reputation that previously existed for the perception of politicizing the clemency process is no longer there.

“It’s become easier after Hunter’s pardon. Long gone are the days of an eleventh-hour pardon. It has become more transactional,” the Trump ally and lobbyist said.

Beyond increased payments to lobbying firms to help secure pardons, family members of those seeking pardons have also found it useful to amplify their platform by going on conservative media outlets that Trump is known to watch or appear in MAGA-friendly spaces.

Savannah Chrisley, for example, spoke at the Republican National Convention and suggested her parents were targeted for being conservative. During a press conference Friday, she said it was a “misconception” that she “either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon” for her parents.

She said she simply went to Washington and made sure she was in “the right room at the right time” and “begged for meetings.”

“Many people have come on my OAN program to make their case for pardons,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who became a news anchor for One America News Network after Trump unsuccessfully tried to install him as attorney general, told NBC News. “Some have not. Some might get granted in the future. I trust President Trump’s judgment.”

Gaetz says he himself has not officially focused on pardon work but said his show, like others, can help amplify a pardon-seeker’s case.

“I’ve covered pardons as a journalist,” he said. “One way people get on the pardon radar is coming on my show and making their case on other media President Trump is known to watch.”