Donald Trump pardons Lil Wayne and other key hip-hop figures
As the vast majority of the nation breathed a collective “sigh of relief” with Joe Biden’s inauguration yesterday, Donald Trump was busy scrambling with a last-minute round of pardons before his presidential term expired. The outgoing 46th president, who refused to attend Biden’s swearing-in ceremony, issued 73 pardons and commuted the sentences of 70 more individuals, according to an official White House report.
Of the countless criminals who were pardoned, several major music industry players were the recipients of Trump’s clemency. The most high-profile of the lot was Lil Wayne (real name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr,) who was in serving time in prison again, this time on weapons charges in Florida. He previously served eight months of prison time in New York on criminal possession of weapons charges. Appealing to the Criminal-in-Chief’s ego, Lil Wayne previously announced his support of Trump before he took office in 2018, so a pardon doesn’t come across as surprising.
Other key pardons came to several others in the hip-hop realm, including rapper Kodak Black, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, and convicted attempted murderer Michael Harris, co-founder of Death Row Records, for who Snoop Dogg had been lobbying heavily for. Biden’s first day in office saw the incumbent sign 18 presidential orders, most of which overturned previous Trump orders like halting the construction on the border wall and the Keystone pipeline, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, and instituting federal COVID-19 precautions.
H/T: Digital Music News.
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