Trump pardons Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, leaves Joe Exotic in the lurch
Trump announced fresh slate of 143 pardons among them are Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne, and Kodak Black
Aux Features Kodak Black
Donald Trump, the “law and order” president, has graciously pardoned violent war criminals, white collar scumbags, and several political allies throughout his tumultuous presidency, and yesterday, on his last day as president, did more of the same with a fresh slate of 143 pardons. Among them are Steve Bannon, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, 2016 campaign fundraiser Elliott Broidy, as well as Trump-thirsty celebrities like Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. Surprisingly, Trump couldn’t seem to locate a spare pardon for Tiger King’s Joe Exotic, devastating a few Twitter-born theories.
Lil Wayne, who posed for a photo with Trump just five days before the election, was facing up to 10 years in prison for having illegally carried a gold-plated .45-caliber Glock handgun on a private jet last year. He pleaded guilty to the charge in December. Kodak Black, meanwhile, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in late 2019 for falsifying paperwork to obtain a firearm.
Joe Exotic, the flamboyant star of the Netflix docuseries, was sentenced to 22 years in prison earlier this year for hiring a hitman to kill his rival, big-cat activist and Dancing With The Stars contestant Carole Baskin (Exotic says he was framed). Exotic, who’s been lobbying Trump for a pardon all year, was so confident that he’d be freed that his lawyers queued up a limo for him outside the Fort Worth prison where he’s been doing time. Exotic nor his team have released a statement.
For a full roundup of everyone pardoned by Trump, head here. And if you want more info about how presidential pardons work, read up over at our sister site, Lifehacker.
UPDATE (1: 10 P.M. CT): Joe Exotic’s official Twitter has shared a statement after not being issued a pardon by Former President Donald J. Trump. “I was too innocent and too GAY to deserve a Pardon from Trump,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Exotic’s statement also makes reference to Donald Trump Jr., who in April joked on SiriusXM that he’d be willing to speak to his father about a pardon for Exotic “just for the meme.”
“I only mattered to Don Jr. when he needed to make a comment about me to boost his social media post,” Exotic’s statement continues. “Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first.”
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81 Comments
I choose to believe this is the reason Weezy pretended to be interested in the “platinum plan” with Trump. Grifting the grifter.
“was sentenced to 22 years in prison earlier this year”
Two years ago…
I’m laughing my ass off imagining one of the paralegals at that law office on the phone trying to get their deposit back from the limo rental place.
I’m laughing my ass off imagining one of the paralegals at that law office on the phone trying to get the 2m they paid for the pardon refunded.
If you rented it for the day you might as well take the office through the In & Out drivethrough for lunch or something.
I mean, it’s Dallas, so it’d have to be Whataburger
Aaaannd goodbye asshole! Can we all agree that despite the tons of future problems he has caused, unless the motherfucker is arrested or has died that we will never say his name or show a pic again please?
I intend to use his potential return to office as a bogeyman-like device to make my kids finish their greens or clean their rooms.
“You eat those Brussles sprouts or Donald Trump will be president again!”
Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom!
I want an alternative term to use when talking about card games.
Dude, seriously! I physically flinch when I hear that word (not as his name) now…
Exactly. I want to only see exactly two more articles about Donald Trump, period: 1) Donald Trump has been sentenced to prison and 2) Donald Trump has died.Ok, actually, if he has a really funny accident like slipping in the bathroom and falling face-first into an unflushed toilet, I would also like to see that article.
While that sounds funny, given the rumors I don’t think that landing face first in pee is quite as gross for Trump as it is for most people.
if he’s impaled with an American flag on his way to prison?not the pole, the CLOTH
are we talking about Trump or Joe Exotic? (or both)
Two things!
Well there’s some good news with all this at least.
This and Jacob Wohl walking away empty handed after spending the past four years being Trump’s public dancing monkey are the silver linings I take away from this.
(Seriously, I had fun with Tiger King too, but even just on the strength of what we see in that documentary, Joe Exotic’s a fucking creep and sexual predator. That people came out of it with the idea he was someone to champion says we’ve learned nothing over the past four years.)
I didn’t watch it, I read a couple things, everyone seems mainly gross and I’m not cool with exotic animal owning. I also don’t really do reality TV stuff it was a overall for the best for me.
Jacob Wohl is dumb enough that he’d most likely commit another federal crime out of sheer incompetence about two days after a pardon, anyway.
I’m actually kinda relieved over the pardons that were issued – I think a worse-case scenario would’ve been pardons for the insurrectionists, his family, himself, the lapdogs (Wohl, Giulianli, etc.) and people that covered for him during the Mueller trial like in his last round of pardons. We really didn’t get any of that.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people in this list that only got off due to peddling money and influence while plenty of deserving people still sit behind bars, but I feel like it could have been so much worse. I’m not really mad about Bannon’s pardon because it’s kind of funny, given that he was put there for defrauding Trump supporters… it’s like a final ‘fuck you’ to his base.
We can only assume Joe Exotic’s check bounced.
He is never gonna financially recover from this.
He’s never going to be able to grift enough to dig himself out of the billion-dollar debt shithole he is in.
I was referring to Joe Exotic, but yeah, fuck the other guy too.
The dude is 74. He just needs to keep litigation and deferments going until he dies. He surely doesn’t care if he leaves the debt to his family.
Kwame wrote Trump a letter slurping his ass a couple years ago & it shaves 20 years off his sentence. Dude was a lifelong democrat too. Fucking scumbags.
Only thing I can think is that corrupt elected officials stick together.
cf: Rod Blagojevich. Guys like that don’t really have a political ideology. It’s just that you can’t rise to power as a Republican in Detroit or Chicago.
Grifters of a feather grift together.
It hard to rise to the high level of power without being a asshole
I certainly don’t think he deserved a pardon, but I also really don’t believe he should have been sentenced so harshly in the first place.Edit: Just looked up the letter. What a fucking joke.
Kwame Kilpatrick probably had his mistress killed, they never had enough evidence to charge him but most likely it happened
If there has been a theme to his administration, aside from the racism and cruelty, it’s that for all the “law & order president” nonsense he’s really dedicated to minimizing and destigmatizing official corruption and white collar crimes. I wonder why he has such a keen interest in generating sympathy for bribe-seekers, embezzlers, frauds, and tax cheats?
He and bannon pushed The Wall…Bannon defrauded Trump supporters who gave money for The Wall…Trump pardoned Bannon…seems pretty simple
My brother’s coming over to help me get rid of my life-sized cardboard cutout of Trump wearing high waist-ed jeans.
Felt specifically outraged at the orange despot for his last minute series of pardons, then learnt that Clinton had done the same. And then there’s his last minute cancellation of his one anticorruption order (preventing lobbying by former white house employees), and again, apparently Clinton had pulled the same trick right before his departure. I tend to forget, in the maelstrom of trumpic dung, the elements that aren’t even specific to him. More depressing than enraging.For starters, USA, just get rid of your stupid Feudal Pardon system. Whoever is in the white house. It’s just creepy.
I thought it was common knowledge that almost all presidents use the pardons in super shady ways but I’ve recently learned that most people don’t actually know that.
I’ve recently learned that most people don’t actually know that anything. Hopefully, this means that we will have more people staying informed about politics and getting involved locally, but I’m not going to hold my breath now that things will be boring again.
Any noble intention behind the practice died screaming the day Gerald Ford used it to pardon Nixon.
Thus giving a country with an already pronounced problem of sweeping its bad things under the carpet to fester rather than deal with them a previously untapped level of ‘just pretend it never happened!’
Obama pardoned innocent people in prison and people locked up for low level drug offenses. Not sure how “shady” that is.
It’s literally not illegal to pay the president to pardon someone for you, that’s shady as shit. Look up Clinton’s pardons, a lot of them are shady.
The point that you are constantly missing is that the act and use of the pardon in itself is meant to be used for good and has been. Its the problem of the person using it.
I understand that perfectly well and I don’t think anything I’ve said has indicated anything to the contrary.
On the other hand, you seem to be specifically ignoring my point: It is too much power to put in the hands of one man, especially when bribing that man for a pardon is not even illegal. Ever since Ford used it for Nixon it’s been extremely obvious that it needs to be reformed somehow.
Sure, the specific, at this moment problem is the person using it, but historically speaking we don’t have a super great track record of keeping shitheads out of the office.
I’m ignoring your point because it’s wrong. Repeating myself again, just because its been frequently abused by the wrong people, doesn’t mean it should be completley abolished. How about people stop electing and allowing shitheads as President so that abuse of the pardon can stop?
“I’m ignoring your point because it’s wrong.”So my point that a lot of Presidents use pardons in shady ways is wrong? Please, cite some evidence to the contrary. Just pointing out that Obama pardoned some people that probably deserved it does not negate the point that a lot of Presidents use it in shady ways, btw.
“Repeating myself again, just because its been frequently abused by the wrong people, doesn’t mean it should be completley abolished.”Hey how about you quote me where I said it should be abolished, go for it. Oh wait, I’ll quote myself:“Ever since Ford used it for Nixon it’s been extremely obvious that it needs to be reformed somehow.”Bolding since it seems you missed that.“How about people stop electing and allowing shitheads as President so that abuse of the pardon can stop?”Boy howdy that’d be nice but we’ve been doing it for quite a while now and it doesn’t seem to be getting a heck of a lot better.
Tl; dr, you are still missing my point that I am now repeating to you for the third time: there is nothing wrong with it. It does not need to be reformed. Especially since it isn’t as total and foolproof as you think it is. Pardons can be undone by other Presidents and they don’t make you immune from state and local prosecution or other federal charges. Just stop electing corrupt shitheads that abuse it. I’m not going to adhere to your cynical, pessimism that because we’ve elected bad Presidents in the past that we won’t not vote in more like it in the future.
“It does not need to be reformed”So first I’m wrong because it doesn’t need to be abolished, then when I point out that’s not what I was saying at all I’m still wrong? Moving the goalposts is junior level, I expect better from you.
“Just stop electing corrupt shitheads that abuse it.”This is like when a newspaper reporter said to me ‘We don’t need a Supreme Court, Congress should just not make laws that are unconstitutional.’ You obviously don’t have enough knowledge to even carry on this conversation, never mind making a realistic point.“I’m not going to adhere to your cynical, pessimism that because we’ve
elected bad Presidents in the past that we won’t not vote in more like
it in the future.”Ahh so you reject objective reality and substitute your own instead? It’s a viable tactic, 30-40% of the country is using it to pretend Trump didn’t lose.
And I expected better than you than to resort childish playground insults because of your equally childish insistence of me having to auto agree with everything you’re wrongly saying or getting angry and frustrated because of your inability to accept a differing opinion or comprehend what’s being said to you.“Objective reality” is that we’ve only had one shithead President in ten years, unless you’re one of those idiots who thinks Obama was a shithead President which in that case, there is nothing else to be said to you. “This is like when a newspaper reporter said to me ‘We don’t need a Supreme Court, Congress should just not make laws that are unconstitutional.’”If this is the takeaway you’re getting from this, then I really need to stop talking about this to you because there is clearly something not clicking here. This was a major mistake and waste of my time as I should’ve read the writing on the wall from your initial OP in the first place. Last word is yours. Make those childish insults you’ll inevitably hurl at me but I won’t read, count.
Please, quote my ‘childish playground insults’. Oh right, they’re in the same place as me arguing for abolishing the pardon: In your head.
“Objective reality” is that we’ve only had one shithead President in ten years, unless you’re one of those idiots who thinks Obama was a shithead President which in that case, there is nothing else to be said to you.”You realize you’re arguing against yourself here, right? Literally half of the Presidents in the last 10 years have been shitheads. Go back 20 years and you’re 2 shitheads for 1 good guy.
“If this is the takeaway you’re getting from this, then I really need to stop talking about this to you because there is clearly something not clicking here.”That’s true, you’re arguing against yourself in this post so there’s something off. You need to rethink this whole thing.
Would Joe Biden be proud of this convo?
Your argument about only having one shithead president in ten years is disingenuous. Considering one president can serve up to eight years and at a minimum four (nearly half a decade), ten years is hardly an appropriate timeframe to measure how many presidents have done anything.I also think that your argument with Murray Chang basically amounts to you saying their opinion is wrong, which is not really something you can claim. They say that the power to give pardons to absolutely anyone is open to abuse; you say that it’s fine in that it can be used for good purposes. You have different takes on the same issue. Personally, I’m of the opinion that giving someone an absolute power in the hopes that they’re a good enough person to use it wisely is overly optimistic at best.
Did Obama and Bush do the last-minute pardons as well? Wondering why you called out Clinton specifically
Because I don’t know about the others. Clinton is the example mentioned in my source (The Guardian’s live feed), and it was sufficient to question the former invisibility of these practices to me, the european general public (hi, I am the european general public). It took the trump show to bring my attention to it.But now that I see it, it’s okay. Because it allowed me to tell you (the US citizens) to stop it because it is not cool. So I trust things will be fine now.I’m happy to have helped.
They did, but I think they were mostly focused on, like, criminal defendants given unduly harsh sentences and the like rather than political cronies. I think the only notable person Obama pardoned was Chelsea Manning, not sure about Bush.
Clinton’s pardon of Mark Rich was exceptionally egregious, and ties in a number of the usual suspects.
Indicted on 65 criminal counts by Rudy Guiliani(!) in what was the biggest US tax evasion up to that time, he fled the country and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. In pursuit of a pardon, he was represented by Leonard Garment and Scooter Libby(!) until finally being represented by Jack Quinn, former White House Counsel to Clinton.
Rich reportedly donated upwards of $1 million to the DNC, the Clinton presidential library, and last but not least to Hillary’s senate campaign. Other reports are that he financed the Mossad(!) and supplied Israel with oil from Iran.Clinton’s pardon was investigated for corruption by James Comey(!).Rich’s criminal pardon was conditioned on dropping procedural defenses against civil claims once he returned to the US; he never came back.
All Presidents have a few dubious pardons but Trump is orders of magnitude worse.
Ironic that the ad for a “Lions not Lambs” hat shows up on this page.
Is the hat referencing Mussolini’s speech? I occasionally get ads on the side for fascist-chic apparel. They look quite amusing next to the usual G/O promoted CBD gummies and vibrators.
I think they’re two sides of the same coin, frankly. But I dig that there’s a whole proto-Axis Powers style that appears to be directly aimed at the same people who proudly shop at Altar’d State thinking we don’t realize that they’re zealots.
I sort of wanted him to pardon Joe Exotic, not because Joe Exotic deserves any sort of clemency, but because it’s one of those things that would be so on-brand for both of them and would perfectly symbolize Trump’s final days in office that it seems like a wasted pop-culture opportunity to let it pass by. Just think of all the SNL sketches we just missed out on!
uh.TEN YEARS for carrying a gold-plated glock on a private plane?FOUR YEARS for falsifying paperwork?Those punishments don’t even remotely fit the crimes. Fuck. I mean, most of Trump’s pardon gainees can get fucked, but ten years prison time for Lil Wayne is outrageous and, frankly, criminal. Maybe there’s some missing info but wtf.
Lil Wayne had not actually been sentanced yet, the ten years is just the maximum possible. The Kodak Black thing wasn’t just an accidental paperwork problem, he was actively involved in a gun trade ring and some of the firearms he bought ended up being used in crimes.
Thank you.
I think as well that Lil Wayne couldn’t carry the gun because he’s a previously convicted felon, rather than just carrying a gun where he shouldn’t.
Ten POTENTIAL years for a convicted felon who isn’t legally allowed to own or be around guns. Or are you pro-illegal guns now?
I enjoy the idea that that animal killing redneck a****** probably wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to get a pardon which was probably illegally paid to someone like Rudy and maybe one of the things that after today causes actual legal headaches for people like Trump and his family and Rudy if they really did take money for pardons. all the assholes lose and f*** Joe exotic.
You think he bragged about it to others in the prison? That he’s getting a pardon from the President and he’s walking out as soon as Trump signs it? That he’s got a limo waiting outside to drive him away? And then he has to walk back to his cell at the end of the day past all the guys he was boasting to? If that’s not exactly what happened, I don’t want to know about it.
And you can bet the lawyers are billing him for the limo hire. Just one thing on top of another…..
I have a pardon in Canada. You wouldn’t know her.
I see his lawyer called the limo company and reserved their white trash special.
LOL you didn’t get a pardon because you’re gay; you didn’t get a pardon because you remind him too much of his base, which as anyone with a brain knows, he wouldn’t cross the street to piss on you if you were on fire. (He doesn’t mind the gays; look at how much he hangs out with Blanche.)
Lay down with tigers, get up with fleas.. or something. sorry, not my best material. I suppose some sort of riff on Blake’s “The Tyger” would be better.
Tyger, Tyger, banged up tight,
In a prison, as is right,
What official hand or eye,
Could void thy criminality?
I doubt Trump ever watched ‘Tiger King’. We all know he only likes the Gorilla Channel.
Needs more gorilla…..
More importantly, why the fuck is someone who has been sent down for murder-for-hire (an is currently incarcerated serving his sentence) allowed on Twitter?
I don’t know why, but I thought Joe Exotic had died?
So Trump actually did the right thing for once. This reprehensible POS needs to stay in prison.