US Probing Scheme for Pres. Pardon     12/02 06:27

   The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to 
lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a 
hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to a court 
document unsealed Tuesday.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is investigating whether there was 
a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a 
related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, 
according to a court document unsealed Tuesday.

   Most of the information in the 18-page court order is redacted, including 
the identity of the people whom prosecutors are investigating and whom the 
proposed pardon might be intended for.

   But the document from August does reveal that certain individuals are 
suspected of having acted to secretly lobby White House officials to secure a 
pardon or sentence commutation and that, in a related scheme, a substantial 
political contribution was floated in exchange for a pardon or "reprieve of 
sentence."

   A Justice Department official said Tuesday night that no government official 
was or is a subject or target of the investigation. The official spoke on 
condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

   President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night: "Pardon investigation is Fake 
News!"

   The existence of the investigation, first reported by CNN, was revealed in a 
court order from U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, the chief judge of 
Washington's federal court. In it, she granted investigators access to certain 
email communications connected to the alleged schemes that she said was not 
protected by attorney-client privilege. The investigative team will be able to 
use that material to confront any subject or target of the investigation, the 
judge wrote.

   The order was dated Aug. 28, and prosecutors had sought to keep it private 
because they said it identifies people not charged by a grand jury. But on 
Tuesday, Howell unsealed select portions of that document while redacting from 
view any personally identifiable information.

   As part of the investigation, more than 50 devices, including laptops and 
iPads, have been seized, according to the document.

   Pardons are common at the end of a president's tenure and are occasionally 
politically fraught affairs as some convicted felons look to leverage 
connections inside the White House to secure clemency. Last week, Trump 
announced that he had pardoned his first national security adviser, Michael 
Flynn, even as a federal judge was weighing a Justice Department request to 
dismiss the case.