The pardon grift is real and it just caught up with Boosie Badazz in arbitration.
The rapper is taking legal action against political operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman after allegedly shelling out $600,000 to help secure a pardon from President Trump — one Boosie says never came. Last September, Boosie and Burkman signed a contract on Sept. 30. Here’s the whole tragic setup: Boosie told NOTUS “They were real aggressive, they were talking like they had Trump on speed dial.” These dudes pitched themselves as Trump’s inside men, claimed they’d already secured nine pardons for other clients, and Boosie—facing a potential 24-month federal prison sentence on a gun charge—took the bait.
The contract had a refund clause. The contract included a provision that would allow Boosie to request a partial refund of the $600,000 fee if the lobbyists had not secured a pardon by “close of business” on Jan. 31, 2025, with both parties acknowledging that date was meant for 2026. Fast forward to New Year’s Day 2026: Boosie’s lawyer got a call claiming Trump had already signed the pardon and the White House just hadn’t announced it yet. Pure fiction. The pair have refused to pay back half the fee, citing an overrun of costs, and they said they were effectively bankrupt. This is the first arbitration of its kind against pardon lobbyists under Trump’s second term.
So who are Wohl and Burkman? Wohl and Burkman are convicted felons who paid $1.25 million over a robocall scheme aimed at Black voters during 2020. They also secretly founded an AI lobbying firm that clients said didn’t work. These are the types. And they went hard on the Boosie pitch—Wohl claimed that MAGA influencers like Mike Cernovich and House Speaker Mike Johnson had endorsed a pardon for Boosie. “Everyone whose opinion he cares about has endorsed this,” Wohl said in a text message to Blanco in early January, referring to Trump. All lies. A representative for Kirk said Kirk doesn’t know who the rapper is, Cernovich said he never advocated for a pardon, and Speaker Johnson’s office categorically denied any connection. A White House aide told Boosie’s lawyer they had not seen a pardon application for Boosie at all.
The bigger picture matters here. Boosie’s legal actions underscore the high-stakes pardon economy that’s taken shape as Trump returned to the White House. The changes have fostered a growing clemency economy outside the White House where people with ties to Trump or his aides sell their influence to those looking for a pardon. Millions of dollars have been paid to lobbyists, lawyers and pardon advocates to petition the White House for their clients’ clemency — with no real oversight over who outside of the White House is profiting and whether they can deliver on their promises. And Boosie got fleeced in that economy. The arbitration is ongoing. Boosie is now fighting to retrieve $300,000 from them.
Meanwhile, the rapper actually avoided prison time the hard way. Boosie was sentenced Friday in federal court to supervised release, community service and a fine, avoiding prison time in a gun case. U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo sentenced Boosie to three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a $50,000 fine in January 2026—this was for a federal count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which stemmed from a 2023 arrest while he was in San Diego to shoot a music video and perform at a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub. No pardon needed. The judge came through when the grifters didn’t.
The 16BARS take: This is what happens when desperation meets con artists with a MAGA costume and a speed-dial fantasy. Boosie paid $600K for a pardon that never existed, from lobbyists who are themselves convicted felons and liars. The real lesson? The pardon economy under Trump is a lawless zone where everybody’s selling influence and nobody’s accountable—and rappers, athletes, and regular people with money are the prey. Arbitration might get him $300K back, but the culture just took another L.
