Federal Lobbyists Disclosed $2.1 Million in Pardon-Related Fees Last Year. Some Went to Trump's Own Former Pardon Recipients

Since NY Post and CBS News first detailed the clemency-lobbying pipeline this spring and early summer, federal disclosure filings have confirmed the scale of the business: at least $2.1 million in lobbying fees tied to pardon requests last year, according to NOTUS, which reviewed disclosures filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. That figure is described by NOTUS as likely an undercount, since not every clemency-related engagement gets labeled as such in required filings.

The newest disclosures show at least $815,000 of that total moved in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, per NOTUS. A chunk of it went to people Trump has already pardoned for their own federal crimes, who are now lobbying on behalf of others seeking the same relief.

The Schwartz Case

Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive sentenced in April 2025 to three years in prison for a $38 million tax-fraud scheme, is the clearest example of the system working for someone who paid for it. Schwartz spent nearly $1.1 million across three lobbying firms in 2025 to pursue clemency, according to disclosures reviewed by both NOTUS and the New York Post. Trump pardoned him on Nov. 14, 2025.

The day before that pardon was signed, Merkava Strategies Corporation's Josh Nass registered to lobby specifically for Schwartz, later reporting $100,000 in fourth-quarter income for "executive clemency and post-conviction relief" work, according to NOTUS. Schwartz had already paid JM Burkman & Associates $960,000 in the second quarter of 2025 for the same pursuit.

The lobbyists on that Burkman account, Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, pleaded guilty in 2022 to telecommunications fraud tied to a robocall scheme that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called "an egregious example of voter suppression." They are now working the clemency-lobbying circuit themselves.

When NOTUS asked Schwartz family spokesperson Juda Engelmayer of HeraldPR about the arrangement, he declined to detail it: "We're not in a position to discuss the details of any client work, processes, or timing related to clemency or post-conviction matters."

A New Entrant: Mo Strategies

CBS News reported that Mo Strategies, founded by former Trump campaign and administration officials, has moved into pardon lobbying as a fresh revenue line. Its first disclosed clemency-adjacent client, immigration law firm Blessinger Legal, has already paid the firm $500,000 for "immigration and pardon-related discussions," according to disclosures CBS reviewed.

Mo Strategies president Marty Obst, who held senior roles on Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns and advised former Vice President Mike Pence, told CBS News his firm is "helping them navigate the landscape and process" and providing "guidance of what the process looks like, and what types of cases would appeal to this White House." Obst was blunt that pardons run on two tracks: "There's a legal process and a political process for pardons and clemency."

Binance and the Crypto Angle

The New York Post's reporting adds another data point: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and his company spent roughly $2 million on what the industry euphemistically calls "executive relief." Zhao served four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws before Trump pardoned him in October 2025. Disclosures reviewed by the Post show Zhao personally paid $30,000 to Baker & Hostetler LLP, while Binance paid the same firm $70,000 for identical work and another $1.9 million to Checkmate Government Relations for clemency and other crypto-related lobbying.

What the White House Says

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has given the same statement to both the Post and CBS News: Trump "takes his absolute constitutional power to issue pardons and commutations seriously," with a "rigorous review process involving the Department of Justice and the White House Counsel's Office" before any request reaches his desk, where he is "the final decision-maker." Leavitt added that Trump "finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons."

A Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News the pardon office "has received a record number of applications for clemency" and reviews them "to make recommendations to the president that are consistent, unbiased, and uphold the rule of law," adding "there has been no departure from this longstanding process."

Critics of this arrangement would raise what the record does not yet conclusively show. The concern, raised implicitly across all four outlets' reporting, is that access to clemency now appears to correlate with the size of a legal bill rather than the merits of a case, and that people who committed the same category of crime without deep pockets have no equivalent path. That is a legitimate structural question about how executive clemency works in practice.

But none of the reporting establishes that money buys outcomes as a matter of law, or that the White House review process was bypassed. No investigation into pay-for-pardon activity has been announced. No charges have been filed related to any of these lobbying arrangements. Paying a lobbyist to petition the executive branch is legal advocacy, not proven wrongdoing, and Omar Navarro's claim to the Post that an unnamed government-connected figure demanded $2 million to $3 million for pardon help remains a single, unverified secondhand account from someone currently incarcerated.

What is documented is the money trail and the outcomes for people who paid it. Schwartz, Zhao, and Blessinger Legal's clients all engaged well-connected firms and all either received clemency or are actively pursuing it through the same access points. The open question is whether the volume of applications now flowing through the DOJ's pardon office, which the department itself calls "a record number," produces the same odds for applicants without a lobbyist on retainer.