In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a full pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years in a federal prison. Unbeknownst to the public, his pardon was the CIA's idea. They claim that Backman may have obtained secrets that would compromise American satellite surveillance. Smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, Backman is given a new identity and home in Italy. He thinks he's free. But the CIA will soon leak his whereabouts to countries around the world.