A Million-Dollar Pardon Offer at the Trump Hotel

Updated on February 10, 2021 at 6:16 p.m. ET

Soon after the November election, a business colleague of Donald Trump’s close ally Corey Lewandowski offered a whistleblower and convicted ex-banker an expensive deal: In exchange for a $300,000 fee up front—plus another $1 million if successful—the two men would push the then-president for a pardon, according to the ex-banker and an associate who heard the pitch.

Brad Birkenfeld, whose exposure of tax-evasion schemes yielded billions of dollars for U.S. coffers, told me he received this offer in person from Lewandowski’s colleague Jason Osborne. In a later phone call with a second Birkenfeld associate, Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, upped the initial fee to $500,000 and boasted that he was meeting with Trump the next day to discuss pardons, Birkenfeld told me. Birkenfeld, who said he rejected both offers as “shakedowns,” tried other avenues to obtain a pardon, but a handful of associates working pro bono on his behalf were unsuccessful in securing him one. Osborne and Lewandowski both denied Birkenfeld’s claims, but a January email from Osborne to Birkenfeld suggests that two pitches were made offering “our assistance” in obtaining a pardon.

Birkenfeld told me how, about his career and whistleblowing history. Birkenfeld, accompanied by an evangelical pastor who was trying to help him obtain a pardon, offered copies to Osborne and a colleague. During a brief chat about what Birkenfeld was working on, he told Osborne about his interest in securing a pardon. “That is exactly what we do, and we’re doing it for other clients,” Osborne replied, according to Birkenfeld. The lobbyist, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, said, “Corey [Lewandowski] is my partner, and we’re doing this for other people.”