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Trump’s Final Blitz of Pardons
Trump pardoned rapper Lil Wayne and commuted the sentence of Detroit’s former-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, but NSA leaker Edward Snowden and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange failed to make the list.
President Donald Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of 70 people on his last day in office Wednesday. Many of the pardons and commutations on his list were sought by criminal justice reform advocates, and included people serving long sentences for low-level offenses.
Trump pardoned Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., better known as rapper Lil Wayne, and Bill K. Kapri, also known as rapper Kodak Black.
Carter “pled guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, owing to a conviction over 10 years ago,” the White House said. Deion Sanders, who wrote in support of this pardon, calls Mr. Wayne “a provider for his family, a friend to many, a man of faith, a natural giver to the less fortunate, a waymaker, [and] a game changer.”
Prosecutors said the gold-plated, .45-caliber handgun was loaded and in Carter’s bag on a private flight when authorities found it. Carter was arrested in Dec 2019 as he arrived on a flight from California at the Opa Locka Executive Airport. In the past, the rapper has expressed his support for Trump and recently met with him to discuss criminal justice…