Case file 45-47 · Federal clemency · January 20, 2025 → present
Pardonmaxxing
Every crime has a price. We found the receipts.
For about a day in September, the Justice Department’s list of Trump’s pardons went blank. DOJ called it “a technical issue.” We kept a copy. Then we lined it up against court records, campaign filings and one very expensive dinner, and did the math.
- People granted clemency since Jan. 20, 2025
- 1,746
- Years of prison sentences on the individual grants
- 735+6 life
- Pardoned before any trial
- 8
Our ledger. Includes one mass proclamation.
Sum of sentences as imposed. See method.
Charged, never tried.
The list
went missing
It was there on Sunday.
By Monday the page was still standing: header, breadcrumbs, footer, a phone number for the Office of the Pardon Attorney. The names were gone. 28,338 bytes had become 12,493.
By Tuesday, the names were back like nothing happened.
The official explanation “…was due to a technical issue and it was promptly fixed. The page has been restored.” (the Justice Department’s Rapid Response account, via Raw Story)
Could be. Websites break. But when a list of names disappears for a day in this town, somebody makes a copy. We made ours. Here it is, with receipts attached.
- Sep 20, 2026 · 15:40 UTC 28,338 bytes · list present
- Sep 21, 2026 · 19:41 UTC 12,493 bytes · list gone
- Sep 22, 2026 · 16:41 UTC 28,337 bytes · restored
The market report
Clemency is supposed to be about mercy. Look at who got it, and it reads more like a portfolio.
- 70% Second-term clemency actions that went around the Justice Department’s review CBS News, 60 Minutes
- 290 Influencers who pushed successful clemency bids House Judiciary Committee Democrats, citing Reuters
- 14,000 Regular clemency applications waiting at the Justice Department House Judiciary Committee Democrats
- 58% Americans who say Trump gives out too many pardons Economist/YouGov poll, Dec. 5–8, 2025
View as table
| Period | grants |
|---|---|
| January 2025 | 27 |
| February 2025 | 1 |
| March 2025 | 13 |
| April 2025 | 2 |
| May 2025 | 27 |
| June 2025 | 0 |
| July 2025 | 0 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 3 |
| November 2025 | 12 |
| December 2025 | 5 |
| January 2026 | 24 |
| February 2026 | 7 |
| March 2026 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 0 |
| June 2026 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 17 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 30 |
Source: Justice Department clemency list (archived), news reports. Mass proclamations are marked above the bars and not drawn to scale. Full ledger.
Sentences as imposed by the court, summed. Mass proclamations excluded. Life sentences counted separately.
Best-performing asset class of the decade
Gold: money reportedly spent near Trump world. Red: court-ordered money the grant wiped out. The gap between the dots is what an analyst would call a return. Satire. Real numbers.
- Money on the table (reported)
- Court-ordered money wiped off the books
- Trevor Milton 408×
- Adam Kidan 12×
- David Gentile 6.2×
- Joseph Schwartz 4.8×
- Paul Walczak 4.4×
View as table
| Recipient | On the table | Wiped off | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trevor Milton | $1.7M | $681M | 407.8× |
| Adam Kidan | $1.8M | $21.7M | 11.9× |
| David Gentile | $2.5M | $15.5M | 6.2× |
| Joseph Schwartz | $1.1M | $5.1M | 4.8× |
| Paul Walczak | $1M | $4.4M | 4.4× |
Sources on each case file. We don’t claim the money caused the grant. We put the two numbers next to each other.
Take a good look
All 36 case files →
Forgiveness is free. Access costs extra.
In September, 60 Minutes put a hidden camera on two pardon brokers, Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl. They quoted an undercover client $300K for a pardon “by October.” One of their real clients paid $960K and got his. Another paid $600K, didn’t, and is now in arbitration.
See the rate card →“They’re snake oil salesmen, they’re swamp salesmen. What word do you want?”
How to pardonmax
in seven steps
A self-improvement program for the federally convicted. Satire. Every example is real.
- 01
Think bigger
Small crimes are for small people. More than half of Trump’s first 88 individual pardons went to white-collar offenders. [NBC]
- 02
Donate early
Trevor Milton and his wife gave about $1.8 million before the 2024 election. Five months later his securities-fraud conviction was pardoned. Case file →
- 03
Have Mom book dinner
Elizabeth Fago attended a $1-million-a-head MAGA Inc. dinner. Weeks later, her son Paul Walczak was pardoned. Case file →
- 04
Get your kid a speaking slot
Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican convention. The President called her himself when her parents were pardoned. Case file →
- 05
Say “weaponized”
Former Tennessee state senator Brian Kelsey pleaded guilty, reported to prison, and was pardoned two weeks later. His statement: “the justice system can be weaponized to target conservatives.” Case file →
- 06
Hire a guy who knows a guy
Joseph Schwartz paid two pardon brokers $960,000. He was out about three months into a three-year sentence. The rate card →
- 07
Don’t be regular
About 14,000 ordinary clemency petitions are sitting at the Justice Department. They went through the proper process. That was their mistake. [HJC]
- 08
Get your number
Every program needs a goal. Find out what forgiveness went for in cases like yours.
Get a quote →
Exhibit G · The quote engine
What would forgiveness cost you?
Tell us your crime. We’ll pull the comps: real people with records like yours, what was spent near the President’s orbit on their behalf, and what got wiped away.
Get a quote →Satire. Nobody here sells anything. Paying an official for an official act is bribery. The real petition is free: justice.gov.
Keep the file open
Lists go missing.
Copies don’t.
Take the whole dataset. Check our work, build on it, mirror it. Every row lists its sources.
Other people keeping copies