President Trump granted clemency to nearly 150 people in the final hours of his presidency, including prominent allies, high-profile entertainers and many lesser-known convicted drug offenders.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon, one-time Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy and rapper Lil Wayne were among 73 people granted pardons.
Ken Kurson, a friend of Jared Kushner’s, was also pardoned. He was charged in October with cyberstalking in connection to a bitter divorce.
Bannon, also a former top Trump campaign aide, was charged last August for an alleged scam involving private donations to build a border wall.
Broidy, who held finance posts in Trump’s 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty in October to violating foreign lobbying laws.
Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, pleaded guilty last month to a felony gun charge after authorities found a gold-plated pistol with a pearl grip in his private jet a year ago.
The rapper had yet to be sentenced and faced up to a decade behind bars — since he had already been convicted of a felony gun charge in 2009.
In addition to the pardons, Trump issued commutations to 70 people, including Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit who was serving a 28-year prison term on corruption charges, and rapper Kodak Black. Black, 23, who was born Bill Kahan Kapri, was sentenced to prison last year for making a false statement to buy a firearm.
Conspicuously missing from the clemency list was former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whom Trump was reportedly considering.
The widely anticipated move added to the nearly 90 clemency orders Trump had issued since 2017, including back-to-back waves over two days leading to Christmas.
Trump was heavily involved in vetting the people who sought his mercy and held several meetings over the past weekend to review his plans, the Associated Press reported, citing an unidentified White House official.
The bulk of the clemency requests came from first-time drug offenders serving life sentences in prison, a source involved in the process told AP.
Other notable pardon recipients include Robert Zangrillo, a Miami venture capitalist charged in the college admissions scandal, and former Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi, who was convicted in 2013 on corruption, money laundering and other charges.
Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing self-driving car technology for Uber, was also granted a pardon.
The president personally made every decision on whom to approve and whom to reject, the source added.
First daughter Ivanka Trump, a full-time White House adviser to her dad, also reportedly met with advocates for various applicants, reviewed cases and brought them to the Justice Department and its Office of Pardon Attorney for review.
