Access, Influence and Pardons: How a Set of Allies Shaped Trump’s Choices

WASHINGTON — One hacked the computers of business rivals. One bribed doctors to win referrals for his nursing homes.

Another fled the country while he was on trial for his role in a fraud that siphoned $450 million from an insurance company, leading to its collapse. Still another ran a Ponzi scheme that plunged a synagogue into foreclosure.

Each won clemency from former President Donald Trump.

They also had something else in common, an investigation by The New York Times found. The efforts to seek clemency for these wealthy or well-connected people benefited from their social, political or financial ties to a loose collection of lawyers, lobbyists, activists and Orthodox Jewish leaders who had worked with Trump administration officials on criminal justice legislation championed by Jared Kushner.

That network revolved around a pair of influential Jewish organizations that focus on criminal justice issues — the Aleph Institute and Tzedek Association — and well-wired people working with them, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, and Nick Muzin, a Republican operative.

The combination of access, influence and substantive expertise they brought to bear produced striking results.

Of the 238 total pardons and commutations granted by Trump during his term, 27 went to people supported by Aleph, Tzedek and the lawyers and lobbyists who worked with them. At least six of those 27 went to people who had been denied clemency through the official Justice Department process during the Obama administration.

Over the years, at least four of those who received clemency or their families had donated to Aleph. Others or their allies and families had retained people like Dershowitz, who represented Trump in his first impeachment trial, Tolman and Muzin to press their cases before the Trump administration, often working in parallel with Aleph and Tzedek, according to public records and interviews.