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President Trump curtailed rumors that the Justice Department was investigating claims of a bribery scheme involving a possible presidential pardon, according to Fox News.
“Pardon investigation is Fake News!” the president wrote in a Twitter message.
Pardon investigation is Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2020
Adam Schiff spoke on the topic, saying that if Trump were connected to the scheme, he could be subject to criminal charges.
“He would not be immune to prosecution for it.”
“Someone in this conspiracy has to have a close enough relationship to the president or people around the president to make it happen,” he continued.
“You’re not gonna pay a bribe to someone who has no relationship to the party that has the power to give the pardon.”
From Fox News:
Trump’s tweet came amid reports that court documents unsealed Tuesday revealed that Justice was investigating an alleged “secret lobbying scheme” in which unidentified individuals purportedly offered political campaign contributions to White House figures in exchange for a pardon.
The documents show that Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell in August reviewed a request from prosecutors to gain access to documents that were acquired through a search warrant.
The documents revealed an investigation in which two unnamed individuals allegedly “acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials, without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act” in order to secure “a pardon or reprieve of sentence.”
