Turns out, President Trump’s taste for endless pardons has its limits. According to a report from Notus published Monday, the rapper Boosie BadAzz paid a team of lobbyists $600,000 in hopes that they could secure a pardon from Trump for the federal charges he incurred from illegally possessing a handgun in 2023. Boosie, born Torence Hatch, is now demanding a $300,000 refund from JM Burkman & Associates, the team of D.C. Lobbyists made up of Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who claim that they are not contractually obligated to return any payments.
Earlier this year, Boosie was sentenced to timed served, along with three years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service, according to the rapper’s lawyer, though he violated those conditions in May when he was accused of striking a security guard over the head with a hookah base. Facing more court charges this fall, Boosie, who claimed the 2023 incident where he brought a loaded handgun to a video shoot was “nonviolent and isolated,” sought the help of Wohl and Burkman in obtaining a presidential pardon. And, to be fair, Trump’s generous taste for pardons has found him issuing them at eight times the rate of former President Biden, even including letting the January 6 Capitol rioters off the hook after he took office.
But can you actually buy a pardon?
No: that would constitute bribery, though language pertaining to how that would actually implicate the president himself is more murky. Various bills, such as 2020’s No President Is Above the Law Act, have been introduced to clarify this language, though they have made no progress. Trump’s thirst for pardons, however, has blossomed an entire economy built around lobbyists who claim they can cash in on their ties to the president for clemency — all for a fee.
According to Notus, Boosie claimed he was led to believe that Wohl and Burkman, who “were talking like they had Trump on speed dial,” could persuade Trump after Boosie failed to sway him during Black History Month for a pardon. They reportedly dropped names like Laura Loomer, Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, and Erika Kirk, claiming they could help in the process (a representative for Kirk denied to Notus that she even knows who Boosie is) and at one point claimed that Trump had already signed the pardon.
Boosie tried to spur along his request by tagging some of those same right-wing figures in a post on X, including Loomer, who replied that she doesn’t “get involved in this type of work.” She went on to write, “You an’t pay for a pardon…now sure who told you that’s how it works.” Boosie, seemingly enlightened by the exchange, thanked Loomer for the reply: “Your honesty is really appreciated.”
According to Notus, through conversations with Boosie’s criminal defense lawyer Meghan Blanco, Wohl and Burkman claimed to have secured nine previous pardons for clients in the past, though federal lobbying disclosures only indicate one successful case, for executive Joseph Schwatrz. They are also notorious fraudsters. The duo previously tried to manufacture false sexual harassment allegations against former special counsel Robert Mueller and Pete Buttigieg, and are known for their political stunts aimed to garner controversy and attention — but not founded on facts. They now appear to be, via Notus’ reporting, bankrupt.
Boosie is taking legal action and posting through it, alternating between angry tweets about Wohl and Burkman and promoting his upcoming Dukes & Boots concert.
“Nothing against you,” Cernovich wrote yesterday in response to one of Boosie’s posts, “but never recommended a pardon for you nor even knew you wanted one.”
