Access, Influence and Pardons: How a Set of Allies Shaped Trump's Choices

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Nick Confessore
@nickconfessore
·
Mar 21, 2021
NEW: If she signed a letter to Trump supporting clemency for the man who stole from her, his supporters would arrange for her to be paid $100,000.

Inside the network of lawyers, activists & well-connected rich guys who lobbied Trump to free fraudsters.
Of the 238 total pardons and commutations dispensed by President Donald J. Trump during his term, 27 went to people supported either by the Aleph Institute, the Tzedek Association or lawyers and lobbyists working in concert with them.

Access, Influence and Pardons: How a Set of Allies Shaped Trump’s Choices
A loose collection of well-connected groups and individuals led by a pair of Orthodox Jewish organizations had striking success in winning clemency for white-collar criminals during the Trump...
nytimes.com

Nick Confessore
@nickconfessore
The man in question, Eliyahu Weinstein, was perhaps the most notorious white-collar fraudster in the history of New Jersey. He ran a Ponzi scheme that thrust a synagogue into foreclosure. Out on bail, he did a second fraud to pay for his legal defense. But he had allies...
7:13 AM · Mar 21, 2021

As @kenvogel and I report today, Alan Dershowitz took up Weinstein’s cause at the urging of a Jewish prisoners-rights group, arguing that Weinstein’s sentence was excessive. He told one victim: “In Europe and Israel his sentence would have been 5 years.”

Nick Confessore
@nickconfessore
Weinstein stole more than $200 million, according to prosecutors.

Virtually none of it was returned.

Nearly every victim and law enforcement source I spoke to believe Weinstein hid money offshore before his arrest.

Now he’s free.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/us/politics/trump-pardons.html

WASHINGTON — One hacked the computers of business rivals. One bribed doctors to win referrals for his nursing homes.

Another fled the country while he was on trial for his role in a fraud that siphoned $450 million from an insurance company, leading to its collapse. Still another ran a Ponzi scheme that plunged a synagogue into foreclosure.

Each won clemency from President Donald J. Trump.

They also had something else in common, an investigation by The New York Times found. The efforts to seek clemency for these wealthy or well-connected people benefited from their social, political, or financial ties to a loose collection of lawyers, lobbyists, activists and Orthodox Jewish leaders who had worked with Trump administration officials on criminal justice legislation championed by Jared Kushner.

That network revolved around a pair of influential Jewish organizations that focus on criminal justice issues — the Aleph Institute and Tzedek Association — and well-wired people working with them, including the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, and Nick Muzin, a Republican operative.

The combination of access, influence and substantive expertise they brought to bear produced striking results.

Of the 238 total pardons and commutations granted by Mr. Trump during his term, 27 went to people supported by Aleph, Tzedek and the lawyers and lobbyists who worked with them. At least six of those 27 went to people who had been denied clemency through the official Justice Department process during the Obama administration.

*snip*