1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Keep the pressure on the pardon broker investigation — and don't let it stall. What CBS News and the 60 Minutes report exposed isn't a gray area: lobbyists like Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl are charging convicted felons up to $300,000 to bypass the Justice Department and work insider connections directly to the White House. Roughly 70% of Trump's second-term clemency actions have already skipped the traditional DOJ process entirely. That's not a cottage industry. That's a corruption machine. The "Pardon Inc." report your colleagues released is a start, but investigations need teeth. Every broker, every payment, every back-channel to the White House needs to be on the record. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene called it pay-to-play. When the far right and the left agree the system is rotten, there's no excuse for half-measures. Democracy doesn't survive when the pardon power gets sold to the highest bidder. Do the work.