Uh Oh: Justice Department Investigating Potential Bribery Involving Pardon Granted By Trump

Don’t jump to conclusions about this. There are a lot of reasons to doubt this will come to anything. And one motivation for the Justice Department to jump on this now might be to eliminate the notion there’s anything to it.

Still, this is not the story Trump needs as he gets ready to leave office with the entire political left looking for an excuse to charge him with a crime:

In 20 pages of partially redacted documents made public by the D.C. District Court in the apparently waning days of President Trump’s term in office, Chief Judge Beryl Howell reviewed a request from prosecutors for documents seized as part of a bribery-for-pardon investigation.

“Email communications have been identified ‘indicat[ing] additional criminal activity’ namely (1) a ‘secret lobbying scheme’ in which [redacted] and [redacted] 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 [redacted],” Judge Howell wrote in her order.

The court also found “(2) a related bribery conspiracy scheme, in which [redacted] would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence for [redacted].”

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The report gives no hints about which pardon recipient might be linked to the bribery scheme. Some of the high-profile recipients include Michael Milken, Scooter Libby, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D’Souza and, of course, Michael Flynn. There are quite a few others, though, and you can see the whole list here.

(I rather doubt Susan B. Anthony bribed Trump, although I guess you never know.)

There are some compelling reasons to doubt there’s anything here. For one thing, Trump knows perfectly well the Democrats are desperate for a reason to prosecute him when he leaves office. He also knows they haven’t got anything to go on. The Russia business was a complete hoax and there’s nothing in his tax returns that even approaches criminality. For all the bloviating about the emoluments clause, the courts have consistently determined that Trump has committed no crimes on that front.

Accepting a bribe in exchange for a pardon is about the dumbest thing a person in Trump’s position could do. We keep hearing that Trump has a mountain of debt to deal with when he leaves office, but that would have to be some whopping bribe to be worth the risk of prosecution. Besides, the document released by the judge suggests the bribe was in the form of a political contribution, which means Trump wouldn’t even benefit personally from it. Trump had no trouble raising money to fund his campaign. Why would he solicit a bribe and put himself in legal jeopardy just to get a little more?

It makes no sense.

Also, is it really conceivable that something like this would go on with an e-mail trail like the court is describing? At least with Trump’s knowledge? I suppose it’s possible that someone’s lawyers discussed a tit-for-tat deal in which the president would pardon their client in exchange for a fat little campaign check, but it’s unimaginable that anyone involved with the White House or the Trump campaign would participate in such a chain.

And yet the evidence will speak for itself. Trump is not exactly leaving office gracefully at this point, and if we tack on a credible bribery charge, it would sadly cement the sorry end of a turbulent but – on policy matters, anyway – pretty solid presidency.

You also have to wonder if this isn’t coming up now so that Trump’s enemies can undercut any prospect of a 2024 run to reclaim the presidency. If that’s the idea, I bet it won’t work. Trump’s fans will support him no matter what he does, and I have no problem at all envisioning Trump running for president while under criminal indictment.

But it’s still hard for me to believe there’s anything to this. Donald Trump can be pretty reckless at times, but he is not that stupid.

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I don’t think.