President Donald Trump’s White House Denies ‘Pardon Brokers’ Have Influence on Clemency Requests

President Donald Trump‘s White House is pushing back against claims that well-connected lobbyists can use money and influence to help clients secure presidential pardons.

The White House responded after 60 Minutes aired an investigation Sunday, September 13, into pardon brokers, who charge large sums while claiming they can help get clemency requests in front of Trump, 80, according to a report People published Monday, September 14.

According to White House spokesperson Lauren Bis, lobbyists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl — who were featured prominently in the CBS report — have no relationship with Trump. “Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money and the President doesn’t even know who these so-called ‘lobbyists’ are,” Bis said in a statement, per the report.

White House counsel Will Scharf also defended the administration’s handling of clemency requests. “President Trump performs his constitutional duties in an ethically sound manner, and to suggest so otherwise is either ill-informed or malicious,” Scharf said in a statement, per People.

The 60 Minutes investigation examined people charging large fees to pardon seekers while claiming they could use connections and outside pressure to get Trump’s attention.

Per the report, rapper Boosie Badazz said he paid Burkman and Wohl $600,000 while seeking a presidential pardon for a federal gun conviction stemming from a 2023 incident. “This is what I was led to believe: If you come with this money, you will get a pardon,” Badazz, 44, said on the CBS show.

Burkman and Wohl denied wrongdoing and disputed Badazz’s claim that he is owed money. “We don’t owe him anything. … We encourage him to drop the suit,” Burkman said, according to CBS News. “It’s without merit.”

CBS News also analyzed Justice Department data and found that roughly 70 percent of Trump’s pardons and clemency actions during his second term did not go through Justice Department channels. That figure rises to 92 percent when approximately 1,500 people granted clemency in connection with January 6, 2021, are included.

As the National Enquirer previously reported, the 60 Minutes investigation comes after a major shakeup at the long-running CBS newsmagazine. CBS declined to renew correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi‘s contract in May following tensions with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over an Alfonsi report about an El Salvador prison.

Longtime 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley was fired days later after a tense staff meeting with newly appointed executive producer Nick Bilton, CBS News reported. During the meeting, Pelley, 69, accused Weiss, 42, of “murdering the show” and questioned Bilton’s qualifications. Bilton later told Pelley his “performative display of hostility” showed he had no interest in working collaboratively with the program’s new leadership, per the report.

After his firing, Pelley claimed, via a statement, that new management had instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and include assertions that were “unverified,” per the report.