The Justice Department will take your pardon petition for nothing. There’s a form, a five-year wait, and a line about 14,000 people long. Then there’s the other way in. It has a rate card.
60 Minutes · CBS News · aired September 13, 2026 · Lesley Stahl
Hidden camera. A hotel lounge in Virginia. Two brokers, one undercover client.
The talent
CBS calls them lobbyists and right-wing provocateurs. One of them has a law degree. Neither one was there to practice law. Here’s the rest of the file.
Lobbyist, JM Burkman & Associates (Arlington, Va.)
Activist and lobbyist, JM Burkman & Associates
Exhibit E-1
What people reportedly paid, or were quoted, to put a case in front of the President, and what they got. From lobbying disclosures, court filings and reporting.
Joseph Schwartz
Nursing-home operator. $38M+ payroll-tax fraud. 3-year sentence.
Broker: Burkman & Wohl
Pardoned Nov. 14, 2025, about three months into his sentence.
Boosie Badazz (Torence Hatch)
Rapper. Federal gun conviction.
Broker: Burkman & Wohl
Paid upfront. No pardon. Now in arbitration trying to get $300,000 back. Burkman disputes that any refund was owed.
Ammon Covino
Convicted in a wildlife-trafficking case, and 60 Minutes’ undercover client. His regular DOJ petition had already been denied.
Broker: Burkman & Wohl
Quoted on hidden camera for a pardon “by October.”
Andean Medjedovic
Crypto fugitive.
Broker: Burkman & Wohl
Retainer disclosed in a February 2026 lobbying filing. Outcome unconfirmed.
Joseph Schwartz (again)
Same client, second lobbyist.
Broker: Joshua Nass, Merkava Strategies
Pardon delivered. Nass was later indicted on extortion charges. Prosecutors say he tried to get another $500,000 out of Schwartz’s son.
Roger Ver (“Bitcoin Jesus”)
Crypto investor facing a federal tax case.
Broker: Matt Argall & Brock Pierce, self-described “connectors”
Pitched as $10M upfront plus a $20M “success fee.” It fell apart before it reached the White House. Ver settled his case for $49.9M instead. No pardon.
The market, per Reuters data cited by House Judiciary Democrats: 290 influencers, 624 acts of advocacy, 197 successful cases. Intermediaries charged up to $2 million per engagement. Source ↗
Exhibit E-2
“You have to put pressure on the president from all directions”
“There’s nothing corrupt about it. There’s nothing improper about it.”
“They’re snake oil salesmen, they’re swamp salesmen. What word do you want?”
“That is not a system. That’s something different entirely. It’s anarchy.”
“Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money”
In fairness Conservative critics of the segment argued the hidden-camera sting mostly showed that the brokers were overselling access they didn’t have. It did not, they said, show that the White House was for sale. Source ↗ So the best defense on offer is that the brokers were selling access they didn’t have. Somehow that doesn’t help.
Late-night television, 2:47 a.m.
Convicted of a federal crime?
Tired of consequences?
Why wait five years for the Justice Department when you could wait minutes for a callback? When 60 Minutes’ undercover client reached out, the brokers got back to him within minutes. Our trained professionals work every angle: members of Congress, “influencers,” and tickets to Mar-a-Lago events.
Operators are standing by in arbitration
Exhibit E-3
Generally five years after conviction or release, whichever is later (28 CFR § 1.2).
About 70% of second-term clemency actions went around the Justice Department’s review, or 92% if you count the January 6 pardons. CBS News ↗