Congress opens a pay-to-play investigation into the pardons

Editor's note: congressional letters establish the inquiry, and reporting documents donations to the president by at least one recipient, but no official finding establishes a return to him.

On May 7, 2026, Senator Peter Welch and Representatives Dave Min and Raul Ruiz sent letters to 17 recipients of Trump clemency - including Changpeng Zhao (PAY-03), Trevor Milton (Nikola, ~$660M+ restitution; $1.8M in Trump donations), Joseph Schwartz, David Gentile, and others - asking whether financial contributions, lobbyists, intermediaries, or personal connections secured their pardons, and whether any 'quid pro quo' or 'pay-to-play' dynamic was involved. In June, the lawmakers escalated, sending four more letters to the DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney, the White House Office of Records Management, the Pardon Czar, and the Secret Service demanding preservation and production of clemency records.

Because Democrats hold neither chamber, the investigators lack subpoena power and can only request cooperation - but the probe compiled the documented donor and lobbying ties (Milton's $1.8M; Zhao's Binance-WLF nexus; the Ches McDowell / Teresa Goody Guillen lobbying around the Zhao pardon) and put the pay-to-play question formally on the record. The White House called anyone paying to lobby for pardons a fool 'wasting their money.'

This card documents the accountability response itself: a formal congressional inquiry into whether the clemency power was sold, and the administration's move to preserve (or the risk of destroying) the underlying records.