A corrupt New Jersey businessman who used gold bars to bribe former Sen. Bob Menendez paid $1 million to a Washington, D.C., lobbyist to try to ask for clemency from President Donald Trump, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Lobbying disclosure forms show convicted felon Fred Daibes paid Keith Schiller and his Javelin Advisors firm seeking “executive relief” for his seven-year prison sentence.
“We all really know ‘executive relief’ means a pardon or shorten my sentence and get me out of prison,” said NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Daibes began serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in Cumberland County, New Jersey, in May. He was convicted in New York federal court of bribing Menendez with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars. In exchange, Daibes had asked Menendez to pressure federal prosecutors in New Jersey to go easy on him for his separate bank fraud crimes.
Daibes later pleaded guilty in the bank fraud case and got three years in prison. The sentence was ordered to run concurrent with his New York bribery sentence.
Daibes hired Schiller’s firm this year to try to do a full court press on the White House, part of an effort to get a pardon or a commutation of his sentence, the three sources said.
Schiller once was Trump’s director of Oval Office operations. Previously, he was the Trump Organization’s security director for 18 years.
Schiller and his firm, Javelin Advisors, did not reply to requests for comment.
Daibes’ criminal defense lawyer in the bribery case, Cesar de Castro, declined to comment. Robert Travers, an attorney working to try to help Daibes get out of federal prison, said in a statement: “Fred Daibes has not worked with Keith Schiller or Javelin since June of this year and he is no longer engaged with them.”
A source close to Daibes said he was still considering next steps to approach the Trump White House for consideration.
“What is your freedom worth? So, $1 million to a lobbyist with those ties to the president doesn’t seem like that much to try to get out of prison,” Cevallos said.
Last week, Trump commuted the seven-year prison sentence of convicted former Rep. George Santos, a Republican who represented Long Island.
Asked about Daibes’ efforts in seeking a pardon or commutation, a White House official said, “The White House does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of pardons. The President, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons.”
Trump has issued clemency this year to more than 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. In May, he also pardoned former Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., who pleaded guilty to finance-related crime in 2014. He also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted of corruption-related charges.
