Ed Martin, who recently departed the Trump administration after serving more than a year as United States pardon attorney, will be featured in an upcoming “60 Minutes” segment on the White House’s clemency initiative.
“60 Minutes” is billing the segment, titled “The Pardon Economy,” as a “hidden camera investigation into a lucrative business: brokering pardons for felons. Lobbyists offer a chance at clemency — at a cost, and with no guarantees.”
Tune in Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT for a 60 Minutes hidden camera investigation into a lucrative business: brokering pardons for felons. Lobbyists offer a chance at clemency — at a cost, and with no guarantees. pic.twitter.com/kOKRaqbONF
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 12, 2026
The teaser trailer for the episode features longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewing rapper Boosie Badazz, who claims controversial far-right lobbyists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman promised to secure him a pardon from President Donald Trump for $600,000. The rapper, who was facing prison time for possession of drugs and firearms, appears to have entered a typo-laden contract in which Burkman and Wohl agreed to “craft … a compelling and comprehensive narrative for the pardon petition.”
According to a version of the contract reviewed by the New York Times, Boosie could request half the money back if a pardon was not secured. Burkman and Wohl claim the rapper never signed the contract.
It is unclear what else “60 Minutes” has captured on hidden cameras, or what else the segment — reported in part by CBS investigative reporters Gabe Kaminsky and Daniel Klaidman — contains. Martin did not comment on allegations of a pay-for-play scheme, but confirmed to The Daily Wire that he participated in a lengthy interview with Stahl, ostensibly to be included in Sunday’s segment.
“When I heard that 60 Minutes was doing a piece on pardons, I was confident,” Martin said. “I thought, ‘I’m the guy who knows how this worked … I know what President Trump thinks and how it was.’ So I was confident I could help.”
Martin, whom Trump tapped early in his second term to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, later joined the Trump administration in May 2025 to spearhead the president’s approach to pardons, of which he has issued more than 1,500 thus far this term. To Martin, this demonstrates both the unconventional nature of Trump’s governing style and his unique understanding of the presidential pardon power.
“Most presidents wait until the end of their term” to issue pardons, Martin says, granting clemency “in the dark of night in December or January as they’re leaving office.”
Not President Trump, who Martin says has always intended to use the pardon power in addition to legislation like the First Step Act — a bipartisan bill that helped reduce prison sentences, which Trump signed in 2018 — to show mercy, not mete out justice.
“I think he really looks at it like this kind of second chance, because a pardon is not about justice,” Martin says. “It’s not justice, it’s mercy.”
Martin expounded on this theme in an April piece for Chronicles, in which he grounded Trump’s approach to pardons in a Christian conception of forgiveness.
“In 2025, a year I called the Year of Trump Mercy, President Trump performed thousands of acts of mercy through pardons. He did this for people whom he had met and thousands that he never personally knew. He pardoned cops, freed lifelong and rehabilitated prisoners, and forgave debts.”
Trump also pardoned en masse the so-called “alternate electors” who objected to the results of the 2020 presidential election. Critics viewed this pardon as the president rewarding those who aided his attempt to remain in the White House, including many who participated in the January 6 Capitol riots. But Martin casts the pardon in a different light, noting that most of those pardoned “weren’t big shots,” but rather “forgotten men and women of America” who had been “put through the wringer” by state and federal prosecutors.
A handful of other Trump pardons have garnered significant public attention, including Changpeng Zhao and Juan Orlando Hernández. Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency company Binance, served four months in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to financial crimes. Trump pardoned him in 2025, as Binance was in business with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm run by Trump’s children.
Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was convicted of accepting bribes from drug traffickers and sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2024 after being extradited to the U.S. His 2025 pardon from Trump drew particular attention as it occurred while the Pentagon was carrying out strikes against alleged narco-terrorists in Latin America.
The pardon segment will round out the premiere of “60 Minutes’” 59th season, which comes at a transitional moment for the news magazine and its network. Last year, CBS News President Wendy McMahon resigned amid an ongoing legal battle between the network’s parent company, Paramount, and Trump, who was outraged that “60 Minutes” selectively edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign. Paramount last year paid Trump $16 million to settle the case.
In June, longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley was fired by the show’s executive producer, Nick Bilton, after Pelley “hijacked” a staff meeting to criticize CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Bilton’s hiring was one of several shakeups instituted by Weiss, who rose to prominence as the founder of The Free Press and took the helm at CBS News in October 2025.
While Martin does not “think Bari Weiss is MAGA,” he is nevertheless optimistic about what she’ll accomplish at CBS.
“We need more Bari Weisses, not fewer,” Martin told The Daily Wire. “And we, meaning people who care about conservatism and care about the Trump administration, should be out there taking those risks and being a part of it. Because if we don’t do that, then they will fail. If I don’t go on ‘60 Minutes’ and try to help what I see is getting better, then it will be guaranteed to fail … that’s why I was happy to do it.”
It’s a sentiment Martin shares with his old boss.
“One of the things [President Trump] always says to me is, ‘You like being in the media, go out and be in the media. Be bold and go out there.’”
“That’s what we should be doing,” Martin agrees. “We should be bold and go out there.”
