Four days after receiving a pardon, reality TV star Todd Chrisley took the mic at Graceland to toast the woman who helped free him: Alice Marie Johnson. The 70th birthday party for President Donald Trump’s pardon czar was filled with friends, family members and a handful of people she had either helped release or who lobbied her on commutation cases, according to two people present.
Under Trump, the pardon economy has become personal.
For many, it’s all about getting your case in front of the right person and making the right connections, according to interviews with over a dozen lawyers, lobbyists, pardon recipients, Trump officials and friends of the president, who described a far more transactional operation than in the past that may lead to favoring those with means over those without. One source familiar with the process described it as a “‘what has that person done for me lately’ type of situation.”