US District Judge Beryl Howell released a heavily redacted order that described what she called a"bribery-for-pardon"investigation.
The order did not identify possible suspects but indicated that unnamed"senior White House officials"were the targets of the alleged plot.
About half of the 20-page document was blacked out,with the publicly available version providing few details of the alleged scheme,and naming none of the people potentially involved.
According to the order unsealed by Howell,federal prosecutors in Washington said they had obtained evidence of a bribery scheme in which someone"would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence".
President Donald Trump dismissed the investigation conducted by his own administration as"fake news"in a tweet.
Separately that Trump has discussed with advisers whether to grant pre-emptive pardons to his children,to his son-in-law and to his personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani.
Trump has told others that he was concerned that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against the President by targeting his three eldest children – Donald Trump jnr,Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump – as well as Jared Kushner,a senior White House adviser who is married to Ivanka.
The Justice Department had to ask Howell's permission to view certain electronic communications between a lawyer and clients,who were not identified. Howell granted the request in August,saying attorney-client privilege did not apply in that instance.
CNN reported officials had raided unidentified offices and seized documents and more than 50 devices,including iPhones,tablets,laptops,and hard drives.
Prosecutors had said they planned to"confront"three unnamed individuals with the communications and finish their investigation.
Presidents enjoy wide latitude under the US constitution in pardoning people convicted of federal crimes.,who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
That was the first of.
Reuters,USA Today
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