Rapper claims he paid $600,000 for presidential pardon that never came

EntertainmentPolitics
15 Jul 2026 • 3:42 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Rapper claims he paid $600,000 for presidential pardon that never came

Rapper Boosie Badazz wants his money back after he claims he paid $600,000 to secure a pardon from President Donald Trump that never came.

Two months after the performer, born Torence Hatch, pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon in August 2025, he allegedly hired conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman — known far-right lobbyists and vocal Trump supporters — because he believed they could help him get a presidential pardon ahead of his sentencing.

“They were real aggressive, they were talking like they had Trump on speed dial,” Boosie, 43, told Notus, according to the outlet’s bombshell report published Monday.

The rapper alleged that the duo told his lawyer on New Year’s Day that they had secured a pardon from Trump for Boosie’s federal charges, but that the White House had not announced it yet.

However, the pardon never materialized. In January, Boosie was sentenced to three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a $50,000 fine.

Boosie is now suing Wohl and Burkman for $300,000, alleging that a clause in their contract required that half the fee would be refunded if no pardon was delivered.

The duo — who are both on probation after they pleaded guilty to an illegal robocall scheme trying to trick Black people out of voting in the 2020 election —allegedly refused to pay the $300,000 and denied that there was any refund agreement in response to the lawsuit.

Wohl and Burkman later reportedly admitted that they were “effectively bankrupt” and could not pay the refund anyway after owing millions of dollars in fines for past legal troubles, according to Notus.

“Boosie has no reason to be unhappy,” Burkman told TMZ. “ In 30 years of lobbying, I doubt we have ever done more work and harder work. The provision in the contract he is referencing was never agreed to at all. The other factor is that Boosie's quest for a pardon was made much tougher by an arrest for an alleged crime of violence in Texas earlier this year. We tried very, very hard.”

Burkman and Wohl have filed to have the lawsuit dismissed, representatives told The Independent. Their lawyers argued that the two men never saw the retainer agreement that Boosie had signed.

The Independent has contacted Boosie’s representatives for further comment.

A White House official denied ever receiving a pardon application from Wohl or Burkman on Boosie’s behalf, according to the Notus report. The official reportedly said that Wohl and Burkman’s involvement would damage an applicant’s clemency changes due to their previous legal troubles.

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