Three brothers convicted of a decades-long sex-trafficking conspiracy this month in New York have been exploring avenues to seek pardons from President Trump, according to three people familiar with their efforts.
Those efforts have included outreach to a lobbyist and an influential Jewish group that have been involved in clemency pushes, the people said, asking not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the discussions. The discussions began last year and continued after the brothers were convicted earlier this month. There are no signs the White House is considering any requests.
The brothers — Tal Alexander, 39, and the twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, who are Jewish and have Israeli parents — were arrested in 2024. Afterward, they received support from a political figure who is now an official in the Trump administration tasked with fighting antisemitism.
Oren and Tal Alexander were once among America’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, and the accusations against them and their brother Alon Alexander, and their subsequent conviction, shook the industry.
It is not clear whether the clemency efforts, details of which have not been previously reported, have advanced beyond the discussion stage. The three brothers are scheduled to be sentenced in August. They could face life in prison.
An administration official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that none of the key officials who work on clemency in the White House or the Justice Department had been contacted about any potential applications for the brothers.
But the brothers have cultivated the sort of connections to Mr. Trump’s circle that have helped others win pardons and commutations. The president has used his clemency power to reward allies and people with the resources to enlist well-connected lobbyists and lawyers.
Scions of a prominent Miami real estate developer, the three men were regulars on the party circuits of Miami, New York and Tel Aviv. They attended the White House Hanukkah party in 2020, in the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s first term.
Just a few months after that Hanukkah party, Oren Alexander represented Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in the purchase of their $24 million Florida mansion in April 2021.
The three brothers have always denied all charges and pleaded not guilty in their federal trial. They have said they will appeal, but if that fails, clemency could be another option they pursue.
Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer who represented Oren Alexander in his recent trial, said the brothers’ legal team was “unaware of any pardon application.”
“We are focused only on the sentence and appeal,” he said in an emailed statement.
After the verdict, a person who works with the brothers, but was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, acknowledged that they were exploring avenues for pardons.
The brothers’ team had worked to lay the groundwork for clemency well before the conviction. A person close to the brothers reached out to a lobbyist who has been paid to work on clemency cases, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation. The person, who requested anonymity to discuss a private conversation, said the lobbyist did not pursue the representation.
And last year, a person close to the brothers made inquiries with the Tzedek Association, a Jewish group that has been influential in shaping Mr. Trump’s clemency grants and criminal justice policies, according to two people with knowledge of the outreach.
The Tzedek Association has pushed for Mr. Trump to grant clemency to at least three people. Two received commutations during Mr. Trump’s first term. And one was granted in January.
But Tzedek opted not to engage with the Alexanders, the people said. One cited the predatory nature of the allegations.
Representatives from Tzedek declined to comment.
The allegations did not, however, stop a prominent Trump ally from weighing in on behalf of the brothers. They were in jail awaiting trial because they had been denied bail after prosecutors called them a potential flight risk, citing, among other factors, their ties to Israel.
Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said he intervened last year — after he was nominated for his post, but before he was confirmed — because of a threat made against the brothers in prison.
“I spoke to the Justice Department about making sure that they were safe and protected in jail while awaiting trial, and that to make sure that there was no antisemitism involved in them not being afforded bail,” Mr. Kaploun said in an interview with The New York Times. “They said that they would address it, and that was the end of my involvement.”
Mr. Kaploun would not rule out supporting clemency for the Alexander brothers.
“I would probably review that and want to understand more,” he said. “If it’s something that the president wishes to weigh in on, it’s not my place to say to the president who he should pardon, who he shouldn’t.”
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, declined to comment on any conversations with Mr. Kaploun about the brothers.
The Alexanders would be unlikely candidates for pardons under Justice Department guidelines prioritizing applicants who have served their time, expressed remorse and demonstrated a lower likelihood of recidivism.
But Mr. Trump has largely disregarded the Justice Department process, issuing pardons and commutations to political allies or people who have paid hefty fees to well-connected lawyers and lobbyists to bring pitches directly to the president or his team.
Even with ties in the president’s orbit, however, the odds of the Alexanders having their sentences wiped away by a Trump clemency grant seem slim, said Margaret Love, who served as the U.S. pardon attorney between 1990 and 1997 and now works in private practice advising petitioners.
Pointing to the political pall surrounding the Trump administration’s handling of the fallout over the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Ms. Love said the likelihood of the president pardoning the Alexander brothers was further diminished because two of their victims were underage.
“It would be more than surprising, especially given the questions raised in connection with the Epstein files, if he were to involve himself at all in these cases,” she said in an interview.
During the trial, several documents about the Alexander brothers surfaced in the Epstein files, prompting defense lawyers to request a mistrial on the grounds that the inclusion could bias the jury. The judge denied their request, but did order the Justice Department to bar the release of any additional materials that had their names in them.
None of Mr. Trump’s clemency grants listed publicly on the Justice Department’s website are for sexual crimes, though some recipients had prior convictions or pending cases related to rape or sexual abuse. And people who were granted clemency by Mr. Trump were subsequently charged with domestic violence, child sex abuse or sexual assault.
Even a spokesman for the brothers admitted that persuading President Trump to erase their convictions was a long shot.
“There are certain things I believe the president won’t go near,” said Juda Engelmayer, a publicist representing the Alexander family.
Mr. Engelmayer’s clients also include Harvey Weinstein and a dentist who was recently pardoned by Phil Murphy, the former governor of New Jersey, after assaulting a pro-Palestinian protester outside of a synagogue. He added that while the Alexander family had overlapped with the Trumps in Florida’s circles, some reports of their closeness had been exaggerated.
“Getting invited to the Hanukkah party doesn’t mean you hang out with him on a regular basis,” he said.
Debra Kamin is an investigative reporter for The Times who covers wealth and power in New York.
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