A firm staffed by former President Donald Trump's campaign insiders has collected $500,000 lobbying for pardons, even as the White House brands such profiteering "detestable."
Mo Strategies — run by longtime Trump campaign strategist Marty Obst — has been lobbying the White House and the Department of Justice on behalf of a Virginia immigration law firm seeking pardons for clients. Obst isn't hiding the conflict. He's already expecting consequences if Democrats take control of Congress.
"I'm preparing for potential oversight from Congress," Obst told CBS News, "and so any decisions we make to engage, we are going to make sure it passes muster."
That's a notable posture for a firm whose president boasts it is "one of the fastest-growing firms in D.C."
The White House isn't exactly cheering him on. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump "finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons."
Senate and House lawmakers have launched a congressional investigation into what they call "pay-to-play dynamics" driving Trump's clemency decisions.
"…it cannot become a tool for political favoritism, corruption, or pay-to-play dealings," Rep. Dave Min (D-CA) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) said in a joint statement.
Democrats currently lack subpoena power. That changes if they flip either chamber in the midterms — which is exactly what has Obst watching his back.
Liz Oyer, the former DOJ pardon attorney Trump fired last year, says the system has become "totally transactional." She told Law360 there is now "a feeding frenzy among lawyers and lobbyists" charging "massive fees to people who are desperate to be considered for a presidential pardon."
Mo Strategies is Exhibit A.
The largest known pardon-lobbying disclosure on record — $960,000 — went to operatives who helped free a nursing home operator who had served just three months of a three-year sentence for a nearly $39 million payroll tax fraud.
