Trump issues new wave of presidential pardons including rapper and former politician

Thursday 29 May 2025 - 15:05

By: Zahouani Ilham

Trump issues new wave of presidential pardons including rapper and former politician

In a new round of presidential pardons, Donald Trump has extended clemency to several individuals, including rapper NBA YoungBoy, a former Republican lawmaker, a military officer, and a union leader. According to U.S. media outlets such as the Associated Press and The New York Times, this marks over 40 pardons granted by Trump since the beginning of the year.

Among the recipients is 25-year-old rapper NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden. He was sentenced in December 2024 to nearly two years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Expressing gratitude on Instagram, the rapper said he was thankful for the opportunity to grow as a man, father, and artist.

Also pardoned was Michael Grimm, a former Republican congressman from New York convicted of tax fraud, and Lieutenant Mark Bradshaw, who faced court-martial in 2022 for violating COVID-19 safety protocols. Another recipient, James Callahan, a union leader from New York, had pleaded guilty to failing to declare $315,000 in corporate gifts and was close to being sentenced.

Trump's actions follow a week of high-profile clemency decisions. On May 27, he announced plans to pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV personalities jailed in 2023 for tax and bank fraud. In a public call with their daughter, Trump assured that her parents would be “free and cleared,” a moment captured in a video shared by White House adviser Margo Martin.

The former president also extended clemency to Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive who admitted to large-scale tax fraud last November. Trump’s pardons appear to align with the strategy of Ed Martin, an ultra-conservative appointed to lead the Justice Weaponization Task Force, who aims to counter legal actions initiated under the Biden administration. Martin declared earlier this week that “no MAGA supporter will be left behind.”

The Department of Justice reports that Trump has granted 41 pardons so far in 2025, including some issued on his first day in office to individuals involved in the January 6 Capitol attack.