President Trump has turned presidential pardons into a million-dollar business—literally. According to a bombshell report by the Wall Street Journal, lobbyists with access to Trump are charging $1 million as their “going rate” to advocate for clemency, with some offering success fees as high as $6 million.
And it’s working.
WHAT’S GOING ON: In October, Trump signed a pardon for Changpeng Zhao, founder of crypto exchange Binance, after lobbyist Ches McDowell—brought to the Oval Office by Donald Trump Jr.—pulled the president aside during a Medal of Freedom ceremony. Binance had paid lobbyists around $800,000 and shopped success fees up to $5 million to secure the pardon.
The company pleaded guilty in 2023 to money-laundering violations and paid a $4.3 billion fine.
Here’s the kicker: Binance has business ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto company co-founded by Trump, his sons, and roughly 40% owned by a Trump family entity. Democrats (correctly) called it brazen corruption.
Even Trump ally Laura Loomer said it was a “terrible pardon idea.”
THE DETAILS: This isn’t just about Zhao. Trump has pardoned over 1,500 people this term—including former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández (convicted of conspiring to ship 400 tons of cocaine), Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar (charged with taking $600,000 in foreign bribes), and nursing-home operator Joseph Schwartz (defrauded the government of $38 million).
Conservative operatives who themselves pleaded guilty to felony fraud were paid $960,000 to lobby for Schwartz’s pardon.
There are now two tracks: the official Justice Department process, and the “find Trump at Mar-a-Lago and ask directly” fast lane.
The latter works if you say the magic words: “unjust persecution.”
Former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer, fired in March, said Trump “appears to be considering political, personal and financial interests and not the interests of the American public.”
BOTTOM LINE: The presidential pardon power—designed as a mercy valve for justice system failures—has been monetized into a pay-to-play scheme where access costs seven figures and family business interests overlap with clemency decisions.
This isn’t governance. It’s a protection racket with the Oval Office as its headquarters.