The Justice Department is investigating an alleged bribery scheme involving a presidential pardon, according to court papers made public Tuesday evening.
None of the people allegedly involved in the scheme are identified in the mostly redacted Washington, DC, federal court filing, and there’s no indication that anyone at the White House went along with the scheme.
The heavily redacted Aug. 28 court order was unsealed by DC federal Chief Judge Beryl Howell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Howell’s order says a government “filter team” reviewing more than 50 iPhones, iPads, laptops and other devices in connection with an unspecified probe found evidence of “additional criminal activity.”
The alleged crimes included a “secret lobbying scheme” in which two unidentified individuals approached senior White House officials about getting a “pardon or reprieve of sentence” for an unidentified third person.
Neither of the two alleged intermediaries complied with disclosure requirements under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, according to the order.
In addition, the document outlines a “related bribery scheme, in which ‘[redacted] would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence for [redacted].'”
The order granted a request by prosecutors for permission to review the material uncovered by the filter team, confront three unidentified people “and take any other investigative steps needed to complete its investigation.”
More than half of the 18-page order is blacked out, including every sentence describing the relevant background of the case.
Howell’s order was posted on the DC District Court website, along with another order, signed Tuesday, in which Howell said she made the Aug. 28 document public after prosecutors submitted the redacted version to her on Monday.
Howell also directed prosecutors to file a status report by Nov. 30, 2021, “or within thirty days of when any public disclosure obviates the need for further sealing” of the blacked-out information.
In October 2019, during the run-up to President Trump’s impeachment, Howell issued an unusual decision giving House Democrats access to secret grand jury materials from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
That ruling was upheld by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, but the US Supreme Court in May temporarily blocked the release of the material at the request of the Justice Department.
A hearing on the matter had been set for Wednesday, but was postponed last month after the House Judiciary Committee said it wanted to wait until after the new Congress convenes and President-elect Joe Biden takes office to decide whether to continue pressing the case.
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department immediately returned requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
