There's a lot to talk about with pardons, and we're going to get into all of it tonight.

But I want to start tonight with a story that is about a pardon, and it's a story out of Coal Pepper County of Virginia.

Now, for the first few years that county in Virginia, it's only about an hour and a half from here, has been rocked by a pretty big scandal, a pretty huge one, actually.

After it was discovered that their local sheriff

had been accepting bribes.

Now, just to give you a sense of the scope of this story,

here's how the local NBC station in the area

has been reporting on it.

For years, Culpeper County residents saw Scott Jenkins

as their elected sheriff, their local lawman, holding the line

in Culpepper, but behind the scenes. We now know Jenkins was collecting bribes for years. Some for his

campaign, some just for him. Investigators testified in this video. Jenkins is accepting a $5,000

check from a Virginia businessman. I will make it official with a badge.

Seconds later, Jenkins rewards the man with an auxiliary deputy badge. In all, federal prosecutors

proved Jenkins took $110,000 in bribes from 10 men, including two undercover FBI agents

from 2015 to 2023. In many cases cases caught on undercover video accepting the money.

Each of them sworn in as an auxiliary deputy and given a badge allowing them enhanced gun rights

and as some testified the hope of being able to get out of speeding tickets.

I mean, there was a lot in there including, okay, so I'm going to make it official with a bag, literally a bag of cash.

That was what just happened in that clip.

So basically the sheriff in Cole Pepper County had been taking bribes for years, as you just saw in that coverage, in the form of both campaign donations and cash in the bag, like the one the guy referenced.

And as a side note, I mean, this is one of the stunning parts of this.

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