Lesley Stahl’s report shows Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman pitching pardon help to Ammon Covino for a fee, after Covino said his regular application had landed him on “the list of rejections.” The brokers met Covino and Crystal in a Virginia hotel lounge on September 13, 2026.
The price tag can reach $3 million, and the pitch can move fast: Covino emailed a dozen pardon brokers, and some replied within a day, with one answer coming in seven minutes. Burkman told him, “Look, you can't, you can't just submit a pardon application. It doesn't work that way.”
Ammon Covino’s pardon search
Covino had been convicted of illegal wildlife trafficking a decade ago and served 23 months in prison. He applied for a pardon through the Department of Justice, then said, “When the pardons came out we were on the list of rejections.” That rejection sent him back into a market built around private intermediaries instead of the regular screening process.
The source says presidents have been pardoning criminals since George Washington, while the Department of Justice typically screens applicants and recommends those who seek mercy. It also says some pardon seekers hire lawyers and lobbyists who sell claimed ties to President Trump’s circle, and that donations appear to help people get their grievances in the president’s ear.
Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman
Wohl and Burkman told Covino they could help. They said they would put his pardon plea in the hands of the president and push, and Burkman added, “I don't think your pardon, I don't think it will be too difficult.”
The pair are Trump loyalists with their own baggage: their robocall scheme to suppress Black voting in 2020 led to a criminal conviction. They also said they got a pardon for a nursing home chain owner convicted of massive tax fraud, and that owner paid them nearly a million dollars for their promise to reach the president.
Pardon brokers and price
The brokers’ pitch fits a larger pattern described in the source. President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich after donations. President Biden pardoned his son Hunter and Anthony Fauci. President Trump pardoned political allies, including all of the Jan. 6 rioters and a string of unrepentant financial conmen.
That history gives brokers a sales script: they are not filing ordinary applications, but selling access. Covino said after the quick responses, “This feels illegal.” The question left hanging is whether Wohl and Burkman can do anything real beyond promising a line into the president’s ear.
