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The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to pressure White House officials for a clemency, as well as a related plot to offer a significant political contribution in exchange for the clemency.
Most of the information in the 18-page court order, which was released on Tuesday (local time) is redacted, including the identities of the individuals prosecutors are investigating and to whom the proposed pardon could be targeted.
Evan Vucci / AP
A ribbon hangs from the White House for World AIDS Day 2020, December 1, 2020, in Washington DC.
But the August document does reveal that individuals are suspected of having acted to secretly pressure White House officials for a pardon or commutation of sentence and that, in a related scheme, a substantial political contribution was made in exchange for a pardon.
As part of the investigation, more than 50 laptops, iPads and other digital devices were seized, according to the document.
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The existence of the investigation was revealed in a court order from Federal District Judge Beryl Howell, Chief Justice of the Washington Federal Court, granting investigators access to certain email communications related to the alleged schemes that, according to her, they were not protected by a lawyer. customer privilege. Prosecutors will be able to use that material to confront any subject or target of the investigation, the judge wrote.
The warrant was dated Aug. 28, and prosecutors tried to keep it private because they said it identifies people not charged by a grand jury. But on Tuesday, Howell opened that document while removing any personally identifiable information from view.
Pardons are common at the end of a president’s term and are sometimes politically tense issues, as some convicted felons seek to take advantage of connections within the White House to secure clemency. Last week, President Donald Trump announced that he had pardoned his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, even as a federal judge was weighing a request from the Justice Department to dismiss the case.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment Tuesday night.
CNN first reported the existence of the investigation.
