NPR aired a segment on July 19, 2026, examining what it described as a growing lobbying industry built around securing presidential pardons, with a $600,000 figure cited in the context of pardon advocacy. Hosted by Ayesha Rascoe, the segment featured an interview with NOTUS White House correspondent Jasmine Wright, whose reporting has tracked the clemency lobbying ecosystem across multiple articles over the past year. NPR

Clemency is the president's power to forgive a federal crime, either through a pardon (which wipes the conviction clean) or a commutation (which shortens a sentence). That power comes from the Constitution and cannot be overturned by courts. The Justice Department runs a formal process for reviewing pardon requests through its Office of the Pardon Attorney. But that official channel has always existed alongside informal ones, where people hire lobbyists to push their case through access and persuasion.

The NPR segment and Wright's reporting sit at the intersection of several documented threads. CBS News published an investigation on June 24, 2026, revealing that Mo Strategies, a firm linked to President Trump, is lobbying for presidential pardons. The firm's president, Marty Obst, said Mo Strategies earned $500,000 in income from its first pardon lobbying client. CBS News

NOTUS published an article by Wright on January 23, 2026, titled "Lobbyists Make Millions in Pursuit of Trump Pardons." That reporting documented a case in which President Trump pardoned an individual named Schwartz in November, a person who had paid lobbyists nearly $1.1 million in 2025 to lobby for clemency. NOTUS

Wright's earlier reporting laid the groundwork for the current attention. On June 16, 2025, NOTUS published her article "The Ultimate Currency in Trump's Pardon Economy." NOTUS On October 31, 2025, NOTUS published a second article by Wright, "Super Rich? In Prison? Lobbyists Want to Help Score You a Presidential Pardon," which covered pardon lobbying with mentions of Roger Stone and Boosie Badazz. NOTUS On July 13, 2026, NOTUS published a third Wright article, "How Boosie Badazz's Pardon Push Turned Into a MAGA Mess," further detailing the pardon advocacy landscape. NOTUS

The Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney published an official pardon document for Todd Chrisley dated May 28, 2025. The document designates the Attorney General as the President's representative to sign the grant of clemency. DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney

NOTUS, where Wright serves as White House correspondent, operates a structured editorial newsroom with dedicated sections covering Congress, the White House, National, Metro (D.C. region), Campaigns, Policy, Courts, States, and Perspectives. The outlet publishes free daily and metro newsletters, produces a podcast called "On NOTUS" featuring interviews with lawmakers, and maintains official social media accounts on X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. NOTUS also runs a "Washington Bureau Initiative" and offers syndication. NOTUS

The broader context here is the convergence of several factors that have made clemency lobbying a reporter's story in the second Trump administration. The constitutional pardon power is absolute and unreviewable, and the formal clemency process through the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney has always existed alongside informal channels. What the reporting from NPR, NOTUS, and CBS News documents is the scale of the informal market that has grown up around that power. The $600,000 figure cited by NPR and the $500,000 earned by Mo Strategies represent fees paid to intermediaries, not to the government. The Schwartz case, with its $1.1 million in lobbying payments, puts a floor under the price range that Wright's reporting has surfaced.

The legal framework itself is straightforward. The pardon document for Todd Chrisley illustrates the formal mechanism: the Attorney General signs as the President's representative, and the Office of the Pardon Attorney publishes the grant. That process is separate from the lobbying activity Wright and CBS News have documented, where private firms and individuals are paid to advocate for clemency outcomes through access and persuasion rather than through the formal petition process.

For practitioners tracking clemency policy, the story is worth watching on several fronts. The disparity between the $500,000 fee Obst disclosed to CBS News and the $1.1 million in the Schwartz case suggests a market with wide price variance. The involvement of a Trump-linked firm like Mo Strategies raises questions about the extent to which proximity to the administration commands a premium. And Wright's reporting on the Boosie Badazz case, which she described as turning into a "MAGA mess," signals that pardon advocacy can become entangled in factional politics within the president's coalition, adding a variable that goes beyond pure fee-for-service lobbying.

The NPR segment aired at 8:13 AM ET on July 19, 2026. The full segment is available on NPR's website.