Rapper Paid $600k to Two Men in Wild Scheme to Get a Trump Pardon: Report
Article excerpt
Rapper Boosie Badazz told NOTUS he paid a firm $600,000 for a presidential pardon that never materialized, and now he is trying to get at least part of his money back. The post Rapper Paid $600k to Two Men in Wild Scheme to Get a Trump Pardon: Report first appeared on Mediaite.
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz thought he’d been given a new opportunity this January, three years after he was arrested and charged with felony possession of a firearm. Boosie’s legal team told him that the two men he’d hired and paid $600,000 to get him a pardon from President Donald Trump had come through.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the men likely scammed Boosie out of his money, NOTUS reported in a lengthy feature Monday.
Boosie, who was born Torence Hatch, is suing Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman. The men are described as “far-right political operatives and lobbyists at JM Burkman & Associates” by NOTUS, who also received the contract Boosie signed.
The paperwork appears to promise the rapper can receive at least half of his payment if the men fail to come through. But the contract was also improperly dated for 2025 and has several typos and other errors. JM Burkman & Associates also told NOTUS that “no provision to return half the fee was ever actually agreed to.”
The process of issuing pardons has typically fallen under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, but that’s not the case under the Trump administration. Now, “a handful of White House aides routinely guide who is considered for a pardon.” Trump has the final say in who is and is not approved.
These changes have altered the ecosystem in which pardons have existed. Now, people who have access to Trump, or, possibly, who can make it appear they do, can sell that access. Boosie first sought the help of Alice Marie Johnson, Trump’s pardon czar. He turned to Wohl and Burkman after he didn’t hear back.
The trio met up. “They were real aggressive, they were talking like they had Trump on speed dial,” Boosie told NOTUS. He signed a contract that he believed held a “provision that would allow Boosie to request a partial refund of the $600,000 fee if the lobbyists had not secured a presidential pardon by ‘close of business’ on Jan. 31, 2025″, a date NOTUS points out was already in the past at time of signing.
The pair also reportedly promised to get the help of Laura Loomer. When Boosie’s lawyer inquired about her effectiveness, they are said to have told him Loomer “is the person for the Jewish guys” and they’d tried to “rapper batch” the pardon “through the Black world.”
Boosie was under the impression a pardon was imminent as recently as New Year’s Eve, when Burkman texted it was “in hand and is ready to sign.” A White House aide told Boosie and his lawyer no pardon application had ever been filed in his name. His relationship with the pair ended this March.
Read the above at NOTUS.
The post Rapper Paid $600k to Two Men in Wild Scheme to Get a Trump Pardon: Report first appeared on Mediaite.