Washington: President Donald Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday, awarding them to a former New York congressman, a Connecticut governor, a rapper known as “NBA YoungBoy,” a labour union leader and a onetime Army officer who flouted safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s actions mixed his willingness to pardon prominent Republicans and other supporters, donors and friends with the influence of Alice Marie Johnson, whom Trump recently named his pardon czar after he offered her a pardon in 2020.
He commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado. Hoover was first imprisoned in connection with a murder in 1973, and was convicted of running a criminal enterprise in 1998, but later renounced his criminal past and petitioned for a reduced sentence. He remains incarcerated on state charges.
Louisiana rap artist NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden and whose stage moniker stands for “Never Broke Again,” also received a Trump pardon.
In 2024, he was sentenced to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a convicted felon. Gaulden also pleaded guilty to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring in Utah.
Gaulden’s and the other pardons were confirmed Wednesday evening by two White House officials who spoke only on condition of anonymity to detail actions that had not yet been made public.
In a statement posted online, Gaulden said, “I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father, and as an artist.”