On His Last Day As US President, Donald Trump Pardons Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne & Several Others

The outgoing President granted clemency to 143 individuals in total shortly after midnight on Wednesday. 73 received pardons, while 70 were granted commutations.

Donald Trump (File Photo/ Getty)

New York: In one of his final acts as the Commander-in-Chief, outgoing US President Donald Trump has in his last minute pardons granted clemency to over 100 people, including his former Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon. Rapper Lil Wayne, GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were among the notable figures to receive clemency. 

The outgoing President granted clemency to 143 individuals in total shortly after midnight on Wednesday. 73 received pardons, while 70 were granted commutations. The pardon to Banon, who was a top adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign and served as the Chief White House Strategist, grabbed eyeballs.

Bannon did not share a good rapport with the Trump family after denigrating Donald Trump Jr. in Michael Wolff's 2018 book “Fire and Fury”.

The former Breitbart News editor was arrested last August and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors, who contributed to a fundraising campaign for a private border wall. Trump had upon the release of Wolff's book distanced himself from Bannon.

He also pardoned former top Republican National Committee (RNC) fundraiser Broidy, who was charged last year with conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent as part of a back channel effort to lobby the Justice Department.

Besides others, the outgoing President also commuted the sentence of Bill Kapri popularly known as the rapper Kodak Black. Kapri, who was sentenced to 46 months in prison for making a false statement on a federal document, had served less than half of his sentence.

Trump also issued pardons to several individuals charged with non-violent drug offences. There was earlier speculation that Trump would move to pardon himself or his family members to protect them from federal charges after leaving office.

Trump, who lost the race to the White House to Joe Biden, has come under scrutiny for favoring political allies and well-connected individuals in doling out pardons and commutations.  The outgoing President issues a flurry of pardons or commutations in the final day in office.