Josh Nass built a sideline brokering presidential pardons, charging Joseph Schwartz, a nursing home owner serving three years for a $38 million tax fraud, $100,000 for securing a pardon from Trump. Nass's success at the Otisville federal prison camp attracted a flood of desperate clients willing to pay whatever it took — until FBI agents arrested him on charges of attempted extortion tied to Schwartz's family.

Trump has granted more than 50 pardons for white-collar offenders in his second term, pushing pending clemency requests to 20,000 at the Justice Department versus roughly 5,000 under Biden. That surge has spawned a shadow industry of lawyers, lobbyists, and self-styled pardon influencers charging $2 to $5 million in fees, even as the White House insists the formal process requires no payments.

The pardon process itself has been upended — Trump dispenses clemency in an ad hoc fashion, sometimes skipping Justice Department recommendations entirely. Lawyers now compete to learn which White House staff members carry real influence, effectively turning legal knowledge into the commodity driving this booming but legally murky market.