After Trump’s pardon, the Democratic legislature is seeking more transparency

In the wake of President Donald J. Trump’s last-minute pardons for allies and well-connected applicants, a Democratic senator is proposing legislation that would require more transparency around the presidential pardon process and more disclosure from people who lobby on its behalf those seeking clemency .

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a former prosecutor, plans to introduce a measure aimed at raising public awareness about the often opaque circumstances surrounding presidential pardons. It would also require more notice to the Justice Department and consultation about the potential effect a pardon would have “on the success of any ongoing investigation or prosecution.”

His legislation follows reporting by The New York Times of Mr. Trump’s intervention in the case of Jonathan Braun of New York, whose drug trafficking sentence was cut short by Mr. Trump on his last day in office. The commutation surprised the Justice Department and eliminated the leverage federal prosecutors had over Mr. Braun when they tried to use him as an informant in an investigation into predatory lending, an area in which Mr. Braun was active.

“Right now the process is so open to corruption that a lot of things can happen completely under the radar without anyone knowing about it,” Mr. Blumenthal said.

“Here we need not only disclosure,” he said, “but also an impact statement so that the investigative agencies, the practitioners and the Justice Department have an opportunity to say, wait a minute, this man is being investigated. , otherwise he will give us information and we will lose everything and he will not be a witness.’

William P. Barr, an attorney general under Mr. Trump who left at the time of Braun’s commutation, previously told The Times that when he took over the Justice Department, he found that “pardons were being granted without any oversight by the police’. department.”

The legislation requires government officials who become aware of a possible pardon to immediately notify the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. That office would then begin drafting an impact statement on the potential pardon to gather the views of prosecutors and any victims.

Under Trump, the White House has often bypassed the pardon attorney, which has traditionally consulted with the White House and provided expertise on pardon requests.

Mr. Blumenthal’s measure also aims to end what he called a “loophole” that allows those paid to lobby for pardons to escape public record if the effort amounts to no more ​​than 20 percent of their time spent on a client. His measure would require lobbying registration “regardless of the percentage of services provided by the individual to that client that consist of lobbying activities.”

In the past, it has proven difficult to determine who approaches the White House for a pardon and how much they are paid in what can be a lucrative venture. Associates of Mr. Trump demanded six-figure sums for interceding on behalf of those seeking pardons.

In Mr. Braun’s case, he told The Times he had no idea how his sentence was commuted. But he and his family had enlisted the help of prominent advocates like Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer with ties to the Trump White House, and the Braun family had ties to the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Mr. Blumenthal faces a steep climb to advance his legislation, which is the latest in a series of measures by both Democrats and Republicans over the past two decades to allow greater public scrutiny over how pardons are granted. Republicans will likely see it as an attack aimed at a potential Trump administration, even though some have proposed similar ideas in the past.

The bill is also likely to face legal challenges, as the Constitution gives the president broad pardon power.

“It’s not the way I would have written the Constitution, but that’s what it says, so we have to respect it,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “He can do whatever he wants.”

But he and others who have studied the pardon process said Congress does have the ability to introduce some oversight, as long as the legislation does not infringe on the president’s pardon power. They say increased public reporting and new lobbying rules do not appear to have a direct impact on the ability to grant pardons.

“My own assessment is that a carefully crafted legislative package that does not limit the president’s power in any way, but simply imposes transparency requirements on him, combined with greater transparency in lobbying for pardons, would stand a chance in the courts,” he said. Norm Eisen, former White House ethics adviser, now at the Brookings Institution.

He noted that some restrictions on presidential pardons have withstood legal scrutiny, including that they can only be granted in federal cases, not in state cases, and not in civil lawsuits.

“The bottom line is that while the power to pardon is broad, there is legal and historical precedent for applying certain limits,” he said.

Presidents of both parties have faced criticism for their pardons, most notably Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardon of Marc Rich, an oil trader indicted on tax evasion charges. That pardon became the subject of a heated political debate and a federal investigation that ultimately ended without charges.

Mr. Blumenthal’s legislation would also require the White House to publish a reason for any pardon in the Federal Register and on the official presidential website on the day a pardon is granted.