Trump's pardon-for-cash scheme crumbles as wealthy clients spill the beans

When rapper Boosie Badazz — a.k.a. Torence Ivy Hatch Jr. — announced he was suing a lobbying firm that he paid to get him pardoned by President Donald Trump for alleged unlawful firearm possession, the music star did more than air his own grievances. According to a recent report, Hatch also shed light on how Trump has systematically used his pardoning authority to enrich his allies and consolidate his power.

“$600,000: That's the amount rapper Boosie Badazz reportedly paid a Washington lobbying firm to secure a presidential pardon,” NPR's Ayesha Rascoe told NOTUS reporter Jasmine Wright in a Sunday interview. “The rapper, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was looking to overturn a federal conviction over the unlawful possession of a firearm. But the pardon hasn't happened. Now Hatch is reportedly looking to recover half of what he paid through arbitration. The rapper's case represents a growing industry in Washington, D.C.: wealthy clients paying to try to secure clemency from President Trump.”

As Wright explained to Rascoe, “There was an impetus by folks around the President, and the President himself, to do more of these pardons,” with the Justice Department’s pardon attorney Ed Martin losing much of his authority to the president and his inner circle.

“I've talked to a lot of different pardon attorneys, pardon lobbyists, folks who are involved in this business, and they say that their number one piece of advice to their clients is, one, call who you know,” Wright said. “If you know anybody remotely close to the White House, let them know that you're looking for a pardon. And two, try to get in front of the President. I've talked to people who say they have advised their clients to go to Mar-a-Lago, the President's resort residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Any way that you can get your application — your reasons for why you deserve clemency — in front of the President, they say, is an easier way to get closer to a pardon.”

Regardless of the ethical controversies surrounding this process, Wright emphasized that it is also entirely legal.

“This is legal,” Wright told Rascoe. “To be fair, people have always paid attorneys and lobbyists for pardons. You're not paying for the individual pardon; you're paying the person to go advocate on your behalf to get you a pardon or commutation.”

She added, “What's happening now is that, because of the normal barriers that used to exist to obtaining a pardon, it is now easier for people with some sort of association — they don't have to have a law degree, they don't even have to be an actual registered lobbyist — to go advocate to the White House to get their clients pardoned. And so this has created and normalized a new economy in which people are paying up to $5 million in some cases to individual lawyers or lobbyists to advocate on their behalf in hopes of getting a pardon. Now, not everybody who is doing this is getting a pardon, as we can see from this case.”

Not all of Trump’s pardons occurred because of lobbying efforts. Trump also used his power to help roughly 1,500 rioters who helped him attempt to overthrow the government on Jan. 6, 2021 after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Ever since, many of the Jan. 6ers have gone on to engage in serious crimes.

"At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack," The New York Times editorial board wrote in June. "The outcome was predictable. Critics, including this board, had warned that Mr. Trump’s pardons would embolden the rioters by signaling that crime has no consequences. One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders."