The Atlantic
A Million-Dollar Pardon Offer at the Trump Hotel
Corey Lewandowski allegedly wanted a hefty fee in exchange for helping a government whistleblower win a pardon from the former president.
Updated on February 10, 2021 at 6:16 p.m. ET
Soon after the November election, a business colleague of Donald Trump’s close ally Corey Lewandowski offered a whistleblower and convicted ex-banker an expensive deal: In exchange for a $300,000 fee up front plus another $1 million if successful the two men would push the then-president for a pardon, according to the ex-banker and an associate who heard the pitch.
Brad Birkenfeld, whose exposure of tax-evasion schemes yielded billions of dollars for U.S. coffers, told me he received this offer in person from Lewandowski’s colleague Jason Osborne. In a later phone call with a second Birkenfeld associate, Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, upped the initial fee to $500,000 and boasted that he was meeting with Trump the nex