1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

A Constitutional Duty — Investigating the Sale of Presidential Pardons I am writing to you as your constituent with a serious and urgent concern — one that I believe transcends party loyalty and goes to the heart of the constitutional authority of Congress itself. The presidential pardon power is being sold. Not alleged. Not suspected. Documented. A foreign billionaire named Julio Herrera Velutini, charged with bribing Puerto Rico’s governor, received a presidential pardon in January 2026 — shortly after $3.5 million was channeled into a Trump super PAC by his 25-year-old daughter, whose entire prior political giving consisted of a single $20 donation. The Campaign Legal Center has formally requested an investigation into whether Velutini himself was the true source of that contribution, which would constitute an additional federal crime. A foreign national, facing federal bribery charges, appears to have purchased a presidential pardon. I want to ask you a direct question, and I ask that you answer it honestly to yourself: if President Obama or President Biden had pardoned more than 20 people convicted of corruption — including individuals whose associates paid millions to their super PACs — what would you have done? You know the answer. So do I. So does every one of your constituents. Separately, Timothy Leiweke received a pardon in December 2025 after his company donated $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee while under active DOJ scrutiny. His attorney pressed the president for clemency during a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago. Other wealthy defendants began lining up the same access. This is not how the rule of law works. This is how it dies. At the same time, the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section — the unit responsible for investigating corruption at every level of American government — has been gutted. It had 35 to 40 attorneys and roughly 200 open cases when this administration began. It now has two attorneys and approximately 20 cases. Without that unit functioning, public corruption across this country will go uninvestigated and unprosecuted. That affects your constituents directly, regardless of party. I am not writing to you to score political points. I am writing because Congress — your branch — is the only institution with the power and the constitutional responsibility to check this abuse. That authority belongs to you. It is being ignored while the evidence mounts. I know you don’t approve of selling pardons. I know you understand what it means for a foreign national to purchase clemency from an American president. What I am asking is that you say so — publicly, on the record — and that you act. Specifically, I am asking you to: • Publicly call for a congressional investigation into the pattern of pardons granted to individuals with direct financial ties to President Trump or his political committees • Support or co-sponsor legislation requiring financial disclosure for all pardon applicants • Request that the House or Senate Judiciary Committee hold hearings on the integrity of the clemency process History will not be kind to those who had the power to act and chose silence instead. Your constituents are watching that choice right now. I respect your service and I am asking you to honor it.