A lobbying firm founded by former Donald Trump campaign and administration officials has moved into the booming business of presidential pardons, with a single client already paying £372,000 ($500,000).
CBS News first reported on 24 June 2026 that Mo Strategies has registered to lobby the White House and the Justice Department for a Virginia law firm on immigration and pardon matters.
The disclosure ranks among the largest clemency-related filings in the US Senate's database. The arrangement shines a light on a fast-growing industry of well-connected operatives selling access to Mr Trump's clemency process.
Inside The Mo Strategies Pardon Engagement
The firm signed on to represent Blessinger Legal, a Northern Virginia practice, for what federal filings describe as 'immigration and pardon-related discussions.' The work has already produced £372,000 ($500,000) in income, with more expected, according to an interview the firm's president gave to CBS News, which broke the story. The underlying record sits in the US Senate's public lobbying disclosure database.
Marty Obst, the firm's president, told CBS News that he was helping the client 'navigate the landscape and process.' He described offering guidance on what a clemency case involves and which types of cases might appeal to the current White House. 'There's a legal process and a political process for pardons and clemency,' he said.
Obst is a longtime political strategist who held senior roles on Mr Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns and advised former Vice President Mike Pence, CBS News reported. The other named lobbyist, Robert Goad, worked in the first Trump White House as a special assistant to the president on domestic policy.
The firm, based in Indianapolis, has signed corporate clients paying as much as £396,000 ($530,000) per filing period, with Tencent America among the highest, according to the same disclosures.
A Clemency Industry Built On Access
The £372,000 ($500,000) reported for Blessinger Legal is one of the largest pardon-related disclosures in the Senate database, according to a CBS News analysis. CBS found more than two dozen lobbying registrations touching this area during Mr Trump's second term, though only a small fraction came before an actual grant of clemency.
Obst told CBS News that the law firm approached him for guidance during the administration's immigration crackdown, and asked him to review dozens of clients' cases to judge which might be viable for a pardon. Some involve a criminal element, such as green-card holders convicted of a crime, while others may fall outside immigration entirely. 'Whether or not they get a pardon, there are no guarantees to that,' he said.
The largest clemency-related disclosure on record, at £716,000 ($960,000), came last year from operatives Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl on behalf of Joseph Schwartz, a nursing home operator who pleaded guilty in a payroll tax fraud scheme of nearly $39 million. Schwartz reportedly had served just three months of a three-year sentence when Mr Trump pardoned him. That pardon is among several that Senate and House Democrats are examining as part of a broader inquiry into alleged 'pay-to-play' dynamics, CBS News reported.
The Schwartz case later produced a criminal twist that underlined how much money changes hands in this world. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged lobbyist Joshua Nass in March 2026 and then indicted him on six counts the following month, alleging he hired a convicted racketeer to intimidate a former client and his son over money he said he was owed, as reported by Reuters. Court papers did not name the client, though Reuters reported that two people familiar with the matter identified him as Schwartz. According to the FBI, Nass had agreed to provide lobbying services under a £447,000 ($600,000) contract that listed 'federal presidential pardon advocacy' among its issues.
White House Denials And Looming Oversight
The administration rejects any suggestion that clemency is for sale. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CBS News that Mr Trump 'finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons,' and said a 'rigorous review process' precedes any application reaching the president's desk.
A Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News that the pardon office had received a record number of clemency applications and would review them to make recommendations 'that are consistent, unbiased, and uphold the rule of law.' The spokesperson added that there had been 'no departure from this longstanding process.' Lobbying for a pardon is legal, and neither Mo Strategies nor its principals have been accused of any wrongdoing.
Obst indicated he is bracing for scrutiny. 'I'm preparing for potential oversight from Congress, and so any decisions we make to engage, we are going to make sure it passes muster,' he told CBS News. Should Democrats take either chamber in the midterms, the network reported, Mr Trump's use of the clemency power is expected to become a central target of their oversight.
As the price of a presidential pardon climbs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the line between legal advocacy and paid access has rarely looked thinner.
