Federal investigators are looking into a potential “bribery-for-pardon” scheme involving presidential pardons, NBC News reported Tuesday, citing federal court documents unsealed by the chief judge for the federal court in Washington, D.C.
The heavily redacted documents do not name the individuals involved or President Donald Trump, nor do they indicate if any White House officials had knowledge of the scheme.
The documents discuss whether prosecutors can review documents that may have been protected by attorney-client privilege and were seized as a result of a search warrant.
According to the unsealed opinion, federal investigators are reviewing over 50 digital media devices that were seized as part of the probe.
The opinion, entered by Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell on August 28, is tied to an ongoing investigation that may involve at least two individuals who "acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials, without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act… to secure ‘a pardon or reprieve of sentence for" one individual whose name is redacted.
The investigation also involves an alleged offer by another individual to “offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence.”
The White House declined to comment on the report, which comes several days after Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn. That pardon was the first in what is expected to be a string of pardons before Trump leave the White House.
Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to misleading the FBI about his contact with Russia. Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation ten months earlier, after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the US.
Despite two guilty pleas from Flynn, the prosecution came under scrutiny after the release of FBI documents that indicated a plot to get Flynn to lie.
Following those revelations, Trump's Justice Department moved to drop its case against him but has since encountered hurdles in court. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in August rejected Flynn's plea to force a federal judge to drop his criminal case.