Has Trump family created a new business... pardons. Donate and receive a pardon. It is being questioned by the media and Congress. Trump has refined pardons to an art form and it is raising eyebrows.
BloombergAva Benny-MorrisonTue, July 21, 2026Ryan LaLone received a pardon this month for a conviction tied to tampering with diesel emissions systems. Just as importantly, so did his company.The twin reprieves from President Donald Trump enabled LaLone to clear his name and erase a $750,000 fine for his Michigan trucking-parts shop. They also made him the beneficiary of an unprecedented expansion of White House clemency power, a move tracing back to England's King Charles II.Since taking office for the second time, Trump has become the first modern US president to issue pardons for companies, from a Middle America auto supplier to a crypto platform and a media startup. The clemency grants have wiped out almost $200 million in financial penalties, some of which were destined for victims of wrongdoing.The pardons underscore Trump's broader willingness to blow past the boundaries of executive authority in a second term that has been far less constrained by political and legal norms. He has granted clemency to almost 1,700 people in the past 18 months, far outpacing his predecessors, often benefiting political supporters or people who claim to be victims of legal weaponization.
But were "donations" required? Congress is looking into it.
ProPublicaby Jeremy KohlerNovember 12, 2025The beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s mercy in his second term have mostly been people with access to the president or his inner circle. Those who have followed the rules set out by the Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still waiting.[...]“If you’re a donor or political supporter, you move to the front of the line,” said Jim Hux, a lawyer representing a Missouri man seeking a pardon for tax crimes he committed two decades ago. He said his client has “led a model life” since finishing his sentence and fits the other criteria the Justice Department says it looks for.
Cha Ching!
Martin’s dual role was a sign that pardons had become more overt political weapons. He pledged to scrutinize Biden-era pardons and review what he described as a “weaponized” justice system. After Trump pardoned Scott Jenkins, a sheriff in Virginia and a longtime supporter convicted of taking bribes for political favors, Martin posted on X, “No MAGA left behind.”
NOTUS reported that,
At least one lobbyist-assisted person was successful in securing a Trump pardon: Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive who was sentenced in April 2025 to three years in prison for his role in a $38 million tax-fraud scheme.[...]The day before Trump signed Schwartz’s pardon on Nov. 14, Merkava Strategies Corporation’s Josh Nass registered to lobby for Schwartz. Nass reported receiving $100,000 during the fourth quarter for work on “advocacy concerning executive clemency and post-conviction relief, including federal presidential pardon advocacy and subsequent efforts to obtain expedited parole and state-level relief in Arkansas.”
Cha Ching!
The Guardian wrote,
A New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort money from a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt.Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services.Nass is alleged to have provided an unnamed individual with a phone number as well as addresses while instructing the individual to visit the client at his home. It was an effort to intimidate the client into paying up, as prosecutors put it.
A real nice guy...
CBS NewsBy Gabe KaminskyJune 24, 2026When President Trump returned to power, a group of his former campaign and administration officials started a federal lobbying practice. Mo Strategies, which has registered an array of corporate clients, is now expanding into the newly lucrative world of pardons.Business is booming.The Trump-linked firm has signed on to lobby for the law firm Blessinger Legal in Northern Virginia for "immigration and pardon-related discussions," federal lobbying disclosures in late May show. The engagement has already yielded the firm $500,000 in income, and more work is expected, Marty Obst, president of Mo Strategies, said in an interview.
Two Democratic members of Congress on Monday pressed the administration of President Donald Trump to retain communication records related to pardons granted to recipients including an electric-vehicle manufacturer found guilty of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.Senator Peter Welch, a Judiciary Committee member from Vermont, and Congressman Dave Min, an Oversight Committee member from California, made the request to determine whether “improper considerations, including quid pro quo or ‘pay-to-play’ dynamics, may have affected the clemency process,” they wrote in letters to the White House, Justice Department and U.S. Secret Service.The two lawmakers, citing coverage by Reuters and other media, in the letters reviewed by the news agency said they have been looking into the administration’s clemency efforts, which include pardons and commutations of sentences. They requested that all records be retained for 17 specific clemency recipients, including Trevor Milton, a businessman who was convicted in relation to a startup he ran touting electric vehicles that never became operational.Last week a Reuters investigation found that 96% of Trump’s clemencies this term have gone to candidates, including Milton, who didn’t meet longstanding Justice Department guidelines for pardons. In response to questions from Reuters, a spokesperson for Milton criticized his conviction and said it had been politically motivated by prosecutors during the administration of President Joe Biden. The spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about the letters from the lawmakers.
You want to bet that they will be stonewalled by the White House? Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut wrote:
Pay to Play: Trump’s Record of CorruptionWe are currently witnessing corruption as we have never seen before under President Trump. President Trump ran his campaign promising to fight for working— and middle-class Americans. He said he would bring costs down on Day 1. Instead, he has weaponized the office of the President to enrich himself and his family.The Appropriations Committee is charged with making sure departments are spending taxpayer dollars wisely and following the law. My office has compiled a list of this gross display of corruption so far.Trump’s Get Out of Jail Free CardMultiple news outlets have reported on the Trump Administration’s practice of receiving pay in exchange for pardons or clemency for millionaire and billionaire criminals, including, for example, Trevor Milton, who was pardoned in March 2025 after pouring nearly $2 million into pro-Trump political committees in 2024.In another case, Changpeng Zhao the founder of Binance pleaded guilty to money laundering and was subsequently pardoned last October after the company he founded took steps that effectively enriched the Trump family with hundreds of millions of dollars.Four large players in the cryptocurrency industry—Robinhood Markets, Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken—each made donations ranging from $1 to $5 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural fund.Then in the early months of the Trump Administration, these companies had Securities and Exchange Commission cases against them dismissed, and the Justice Department disbanded a crypto crimes task force.
Cha Ching!
If there is a buck to make off of the Iran war... the Trump family is right there in line.
Another company called Powerus, backed by President Trump’s two oldest sons, is selling drone interceptors to Persian Gulf countries that are under attack by Iran and thus dependent on the U.S. military that is being led by President Trump.
You know there will be a judgement day for the Trumps but only if we win in November.
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