Presidential Pardon

In his second wave of pardons, President Donald Trump issued another 26 pardons on Wednesday evening, including for his longtime informal adviser and friend Roger Stone, his 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

On Tuesday evening Trump issued 15 pardons, including two men who were convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, four former Blackwater guards involved in the killings of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007 and two former Republican congressmen who committed financial-related crimes.

Among the pardons are former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, former US congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins and lawyer Alex van der Zwaan.

The Justice Department is investigating an alleged "bribery-for-pardon" scheme at the White House, according to heavily redacted documents made public by the DC District Court on Tuesday afternoon.

The documents do not name the individuals involved, but allege that an individual offered "a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of the sentence."

Prosecutors are further investigating a "secret lobbying scheme" in which two unidentified people acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials "without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act".

Donald Trump has granted his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn a "full pardon", the President wrote in a tweet Wednesday.

In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and later cooperated with prosecutors. He later accused the government of trying to frame him and withdrew his guilty plea.

"It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving," Trump wrote on Twitter.