S. 5212: No Payoffs for Pardons Act

This bill would make several changes related to presidential pardons and commutations.

Disclosure rules for people who receive clemency

The bill would require anyone who receives a pardon, commutation, reprieve, or other executive clemency to report certain valuable benefits they gave to the President, the President’s immediate family, or certain related entities during a defined time period. These benefits could include money, gifts, services, contracts, investments, donations, or other things of value, if the total reaches at least $10,000 in a 12-month period.

Covered recipients would include:

• The President or an immediate family member
• Entities controlled by or benefiting the President or immediate family members, such as some businesses, foundations, campaign committees, and tax-exempt groups
• Any person who received a benefit in order to seek or help obtain clemency

People who receive clemency and made such payments or transfers would have to file a disclosure report with the Attorney General within 90 days of receiving clemency, and then file annual reports for the next four years. The reports would have to identify who got the benefit, what it was, when it was given, and its value.

The bill would not apply to payments made solely for bona fide legal services in court, though any mixed payment would need the legal-services portion separated from the clemency-related portion.

The Justice Department would have to post these reports on a searchable public website and create an online filing portal. The Attorney General would also have to regularly notify clemency recipients of their reporting obligations.

Failure to file, filing false or incomplete reports, or otherwise violating the section could lead to civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation, and willful violations could also be criminally punished by fines, up to 5 years in prison, or both.

Changes to federal bribery law

The bill would update the federal bribery statute to make clear that it applies to the President and Vice President, as well as candidates for office in relation to official acts they could take if elected.

It would also clarify that “anything of value” for bribery purposes includes pardons, commutations, remissions of fines or restitution, reprieves, and other forms of executive clemency. In practical terms, that means offering or exchanging something of value in return for clemency would be treated as potential bribery under federal law.

Longer time to prosecute clemency-related bribery

The bill would create a 10-year statute of limitations for bribery offenses tied to pardons, commutations, reprieves, or similar clemency actions. That means prosecutors would have up to 10 years after the offense to bring a case.

Other provisions

The bill includes inflation adjustments for the dollar thresholds and penalties in the disclosure section, a 10-year limit for bringing enforcement actions under that section, and a severability clause so that if one part is struck down, the rest can still remain in effect.

Relevant Companies

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