Trump's Presidential Pardons, Commutations Include Rappers Lil Wayne And Kodak Black In Miami Weapons Cases
WASHINGTON (CBSMiami/CNN) - Ahead of leaving the White House, President Donald Trump issued his final list of pardons and commutations.
In all, there were 73 presidential pardons and 70 sentences were commuted.
Notable names on the list include former campaign manager Steve Bannon, who pleaded not guilty to defrauding donors to his "We Build The Wall" fundraiser, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Other notable names include rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.
Lil Wayne, the multi-Grammy winning artist whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession in Miami federal court in December 2020. He was facing up to 10 years in federal prison as he awaited his sentencing later this month.
The guilty plea came weeks after he met with Trump in Miami, Florida, to discuss the President's "platinum plan" aimed at courting Black voters days before the election.
Lil Wayne had been charged with criminal possession of a firearm and ammunition as a prior felony offender. Prosecutors said the gold-plated, .45-caliber handgun carried in a bag on a private flight was loaded. He was arrested in December 2019 as he arrived on a flight from California at the Opa Locka Executive Airport near Miami. Officers spoke with the rapper, who told them that he had a gun in his bag.
He had previously pleaded guilty in October 2009 to a felony gun charge as part of a deal with New York prosecutors. That charge stemmed from his arrest in 2007 outside of New York City's Beacon Theater in which a .40-caliber pistol was found on his tour bus. He accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to a year in prison, serving eight months before being released.
Trump commuted the sentence of rapper Kodak Black.
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Kodak Black, who was raised in Pompano Beach, has been arrested multiple times and faced gun, drug, and sexual misconduct charges.
Kodak Black, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was sentenced to more than three years in prison on weapons charges in November 2019. He pleaded guilty in Miami federal court in August 2019 to knowingly making false written statements when trying to acquire firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer.
US District Judge Federico Moreno sentenced Kapri to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
In April 2019, he was arrested on separate gun and drug charges near Niagara Falls, New York, while trying to enter the US from Canada. Kapri faced allegations of criminal possession of a weapon second degree and unlawful possession of marijuana.
He pleaded guilty in that case in March. The sentence was to be served concurrently with the case out of Miami.
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