Ed Martin, former pardon attorney in Trump's administration, has departed his role and is publicly defending the clemency process against accusations that it operated as a pay-to-play scheme. A 60 Minutes investigation exposed right-wing operatives Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl attempting to sell backdoor access to presidential pardons for fees up to $600,000. Martin contends these individuals failed to deliver on their claims and argues the scandal has been exaggerated.

In his defence, Martin points to the Department of Justice's processing of nearly 20,000 pardon petitions, with vetted batches of approximately 2,000 names sent to the White House each quarter through official channels. He cites examples of legitimate pardons, including that of Duke Tanner, a former inmate whose sentence Trump commuted and later fully pardoned without intermediaries. Trump encouraged Martin to undertake a media campaign before November, and Martin has also commented on the performance of Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, noting Patel's initial rocky start but subsequent improvement.