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
enforcement. sheriff joe arpaio! i m honored to have you here. reporter: but that champion of the rule of law, former maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio was convicted for contempt of court more ignoring a judge s order to stop detaining people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants. vice president pence, she praise on the sheriff as if he had not broken a federal law. reporter: president trump pardoned arpaio last year before arpaio was sentenced. and tonight a key question is being raised. could trump pardon his way out of the mueller investigation? the new york times recently reported that trump s white house attorneys approached lawyers for former national security adviser michael flynn and former trump campaign chairman paul manafort with the idea that trump might pardon both of them. that was while robert mueller was building cases against both men. white house lawyers denied making those overtures. manafort has since been indicted for financial crimes and pleaded n