As Donald Trump lives out his last remaining days in office, he is left to consider who to pardon using his final dregs of influence. Amongst the names being thrown around are rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.
As Bloomberg report, Trump plans to announce his list of pardons on January 19th — his final day in office. Trump’s list is currently being assessed by lawyers.
The president is considering pardoning Lil Wayne, who backed Trump with a photo opportunity ahead of the 2020 election.
“Just had a great meeting with [Donald Trump],” Lil Wayne tweeted at the time. “Besides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done. Call me hand.”
In December, Weezy pled guilty to illegally possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun whilst travelling to Florida in 2019. If convicted, he could face 10 years in jail. Lil Wayne previously served eight months behind bars in a New York jail after being found guilty for criminal possession of a weapon.
Trump is also considering pardoning rapper Kodak Black, who was sentenced to 46 months in prison on federal weapons charges back in November 2019. Black, 23, is serving time after admitting to lying on background check forms and in order to buy multiple firearms on two different occasions in 2019.
A number of celebrities including Lil Yachty and NFL star Lamar Jackson have both publicly requested that Trump pardon Black.
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“Hey @realDonaldTrump my friend @KodakBlack1k deserves to be commuted. The system punished him way to hard for a paperwork crime #freekodak,” Yachty tweeted earlier this month.
Whilst Kodak himself reached out to Trump from behind bars, expressing that he was experiencing both physical and mental abuse, in addition to religious suppression whilst incarcerated (Black is a practicing Hebrew Israelite, he claims the jail is obstructing his rabbi from visiting.)
With Trump’s presidency and potential impeachment up in the air, who knows whether he’ll even get the opportunity to execute these pardons.
