On May 7, 2026, Democratic Reps. Dave Min (D-CA) and Raul Ruiz (D-CA), along with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), sent letters to more than a dozen recipients of Trump's pardons and commutations, seeking to learn whether they won favorable treatment “through intermediaries, financial contributions, or other forms of influence,” according to letters obtained by CBS News. The lawmakers asked for contracts showing how much recipients paid lawyers, lobbyists, social media influencers and others who advocated for them to Trump, communications with federal officials, and records of any donations to Trump or groups affiliated with him. Responses were requested by May 22.
Recipients under scrutiny include Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder who pleaded guilty to money laundering; Trevor Milton, the Nikola founder sentenced to four years for lying to investors, whose pardon erased roughly $680 million in restitution to shareholders; nursing home operator Joseph Schwartz, who pleaded guilty in a tax fraud scheme and reportedly paid lobbyists $960,000 to seek a pardon; Lawrence Duran, whose clemency wiped away $87 million in Medicare fraud restitution; and developer Timothy Leiweke. The letters say the president's clemency is “depriving victims of compensation and justice,” citing an analysis by California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office that put the restitution, forfeitures and fines erased by Trump's clemency across both of his terms at nearly $2 billion. The White House has denied any impropriety, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying anyone “spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money.”
The investigation's structural limitation is that Democrats are in the minority in both chambers and lack subpoena power, so they can only request cooperation. Min said that if recipients “don't respond, they run the risk of highlighting themselves — of being the subjects of future congressional investigations and creating more of a target on their backs for potential further criminal prosecutions.”
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry added a $1.3 billion House Judiciary figure to Newsom's $2 billion and said more than $3 billion in restitution had been nullified; Newsom's analysis says the $1.3 billion in restitution is part of its nearly $2 billion total, which covers both Trump terms, so the combined figure was removed. It put Milton's fraud at $660 million; CBS reports roughly $680 million in restitution. Unsourced claims about January 6 pardon recipients, the Chrisley pardons and Schwartz's nursing homes, and a statement that the probe is the first public effort to trace payments to the president, were removed.