How Boosie Badazz’s Pardon Push Turned Into a MAGA Mess

On New Year’s Day, Rapper Boosie Badazz received a call from his lawyer that he’d been given a second chance. Two men, whom Boosie paid $600,000 about three months earlier, had said in a phone call with his lawyer that they secured for him a pardon signed by President Donald Trump.

The act of clemency would have wiped away his federal rap sheet and saved him from an imminent sentencing hearing for possessing a firearm as a felon.

But that pardon never materialized. Now, Boosie, whose legal name is Torence Hatch, is taking legal action against Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, two far-right political operatives and lobbyists at JM Burkman & Associates, to recoup half of Boosie’s payment, as stipulated in a contract NOTUS reviewed.

So far, the pair have refused, citing an overrun of costs in conversations with Boosie’s lawyer handling the arbitration, Jill Craft. They also said they were effectively bankrupt, according to text messages reviewed by NOTUS.

JM Burkman & Associates said in a statement to NOTUS that “no provision to return half the fee was ever actually agreed to.”

This is the first known arbitration taken against a pardon lobbyist or firm during Trump’s second term. Boosie’s legal actions underscore the high-stakes pardon economy that’s taken shape as Trump returned to the White House and fundamentally changed how pardons are decided.

In previous administrations, the Justice Department has traditionally housed the formal pardon process before presenting qualified candidates to the president. That process is largely absent under the Trump administration, where instead a handful of White House aides routinely guide who is considered for a pardon. The president has the final word when it comes to pardons, and his pardon power is nearly absolute for federal cases.

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.

Typos, Name-Dropping and an Unusual Arrangement

Boosie had appealed to “pardon czar” Alice Marie Johnson about his case during Trump’s first Black History Month celebration since returning to the White House. The resulting silence wasn’t promising.

Without a clear path to clemency, Boosie sought another way. Boosie first heard about Burkman’s firm through good word of mouth — hearing that they’d secured nine pardons for their clients, according to Boosie’s criminal defense lawyer, Meghan Blanco.

Federal lobbying disclosures don’t substantiate that claim: Only one of the clients for whom Burkman and Wohl have registered to lobby — nursing home executive Joseph Schwartz — has received a pardon, according to a NOTUS analysis of federal lobbying disclosures, and it didn’t come until last November.

Boosie said he agreed to Burkman’s help the first time they spoke late last September, and Burkman’s firm sent Boosie the contract within days.

“They were real aggressive, they were talking like they had Trump on speed dial,” Boosie told NOTUS of Burkman’s initial pitch.

Burkman and Boosie each signed a contract, reviewed by NOTUS, on Sept. 30. The contract is riddled with typos and errors, including a provision that would allow Boosie to request a partial refund of the $600,000 fee if the lobbyists had not secured a presidential pardon by “close of business” on Jan. 31, 2025 — several months before the agreement was signed. Even so, both parties acknowledged that date at the time was meant to be for 2026, according to Craft, Boosie’s lawyer.

Two lawyers and a pardon advocate who are not involved in Boosie’s pardon push but have entered into other contracts with clients seeking clemency, said the contract structure was highly unusual. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about pardon practices. The lawyers said they had never before seen one with a refund guarantee. And though the pardon advocate said they had encountered a contract with a similar clause, the retainer fee was much lower.

All three said they saw the short time frame between enacting the contract and the refund deadline as a red flag because the timing of pardons can be unpredictable.

Neither Burkman nor Wohl responded to questions about why they structured the contract this way, if they had a similar arrangement with other pardon clients or if they had placed the refundable $300,000 in a trust, which two of the lawyers said was the best practice for contracts that include a refund clause.

Burkman provided NOTUS with a copy of a motion to dismiss in which the lobbyists’ lawyer, Charles Camp, claimed the lobbyists “never saw the retainer agreement purportedly signed by Mr. Hatch until after this arbitration was commenced,” one of several facts in the motion that Boosie and Craft dispute.

The arbitration case with the American Arbitration Association is ongoing. In a statement to NOTUS, Burkman’s firm said it “cannot think of a single client for whom our firm has done more work than Boosie.”

“This included a massive, highly tailored advocacy campaign across Congress, the executive branch and leading political influencers and media figures. We continue to believe that Boosie very much deserves a pardon,” the statement said.

Between September and January, Burkman and Wohl repeatedly invoked their association with far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer in text messages with Blanco, Boosie’s lawyer. Wohl said that Loomer helped with the Schwartz pardon and that she could help with Boosie’s application. They said they proposed that Loomer ask Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant, to physically bring the application to Trump.

Burkman and Wohl repeatedly invoked their association with far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer in text messages with Boosie’s lawyer. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo

Several days after Jan. 1, Blanco asked if Loomer could help, to which Wohl responded that he tried to send the “rapper batch” of pardons “through the black world,” and said Loomer “is the person for the Jewish guys.”

Loomer did not respond to requests for comment.

Wohl claimed that MAGA influencers like Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec and Erika Kirk had endorsed a pardon for Boosie, as had House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

“Everyone whose opinion he cares about has endorsed this,” Wohl said in a text message to Blanco in early January, referring to Trump.

A representative for Kirk told NOTUS that Kirk doesn’t know who the rapper is, and any suggestion of a pardon endorsement is “untrue.” Cernovich told NOTUS that he has never advocated for a pardon.

“Speaker Johnson’s office categorically denied that there was any merit to the claims made by these individuals or any connection between the speaker and these individuals or the parties involved,” a spokesperson for the House leader told NOTUS.

Mace’s office declined to comment. Biggs’ office acknowledged NOTUS’ request for comment but declined to provide a response. Posobiec did not respond to a request for comment.

One pardon advocate who Burkman said in writing had advocated on their behalf, when reached by NOTUS, said that they had never spoken to Wohl and Burkman and had never advocated for Boosie.

“That’s a lie. It’s sad that people keep trying to use my name,” the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation, told NOTUS.

Neither Burkman nor Wohl responded when NOTUS asked why multiple people Wohl had explicitly claimed endorsed Boosie’s pardon denied doing so, or even knowing them.

‘No Juice’

Burkman and Wohl are known in Washington more for their antics than their lobbying prowess. According to media reports, the duo unsuccessfully attempted to manufacture false sexual harassment and assault allegations against former special counsel Robert Mueller and then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, and duped the Washington Post into reporting on a fake FBI “raid” at Burkman’s house in 2020.

Jack Burkman’s and Jacob Wohl’s felony convictions resulted in, among other penalties, a requirement to disclose their federal lobbying registrations. John Middlebrook/CSM via ZUMA Wire/Cal Sport Media via AP Images

In 2022, Burkman and Wohl pleaded guilty in Ohio to running an illegal robocall campaign that allegedly targeted Black voters. The felony convictions resulted in, among other penalties, a requirement to disclose their federal lobbying registrations. They later pleaded no contest in Michigan and reached an agreement with New York Attorney General Letitia James to pay $1.25 million to settle the case. The Federal Communications Commission also fined them more than $5 million.

Burkman & Associates reported $3.2 million in federal lobbying revenue in 2025, including the $960,000 from Schwartz and $600,000 to lobby for a pardon for Boosie, according to a federal lobbying disclosures analyzed by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks the flow of money in American politics.

The firm’s total federal lobbying revenue is up from almost $1.7 million in 2024 and $1.3 million in 2023. Its pardon work has gotten more expensive: Two separate clients who hired JM Burkman & Associates in 2019 and 2020 to lobby for presidential pardons paid $92,000 and $15,000, respectively.

Neither received a pardon.

Over the course of the business relationship between the lobbyists and the rapper, Burkman and Wohl told Boosie and Blanco that his case was progressing. They said a near-complete pardon application had been delivered to the pardon attorney and the White House counsel was reviewing it, according to texts and emails reviewed by NOTUS. They made it seem like a done deal.

Burkman said in a text message on New Year’s Eve the president had it “in hand and is ready to sign,” then said in the phone call with Blanco a day later that it had been signed and all that was left was for the White House to announce it, according to Blanco. With Boosie’s sentencing hearing approaching, Blanco began to seek outside confirmation of what Burkman had relayed, including reaching out to an assistant U.S. attorney on the case, who she said checked the system but found no confirmation that a pardon had been signed.

According to Blanco, a White House aide said days later that they had not seen a pardon application for Boosie at all.

Because of the inconsistent ways pardons have been doled out in the second term, there is no singular way or person to whom you can submit a pardon, meaning Burkman and Wohl could have submitted it through another channel. Neither Burkman nor Wohl responded to repeated questions about the allegation that they had told Boosie’s lawyer they had successfully secured a presidential pardon.

When Blanco asked for an update on Boosie’s pardon in November, Wohl texted her that “the president is very pleased with us lately.”

“Hence him clearing through the Schwartz pardon last minute,” Wohl added.

A White House official told NOTUS that Burkman and Wohl “had nothing to do” with Schwartz’s pardon and played no role in the process.

“The team at the White House working on clemency has never heard from Wohl or Burkman, does not support their work, and would advise anyone seeking clemency that their involvement will actively harm their chances,” the official, granted anonymity to discuss pardons, told NOTUS.

One person familiar with the process and close to the White House questioned how Wohl and Burkman could have secured Schwartz’s clemency. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to sensitively discuss relationships between K Street and the White House.

“They’ve got no juice,” said the person, who has gotten clients successfully pardoned.

Schwartz’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, did not respond to requests for comment.

By March, with no pardon in hand, the pair were left pleading with Boosie for time. Burkman & Associates claimed it couldn’t refund Boosie’s money because the fines against the firm left it “essentially bankrupt.”

“we owe more six million dollars total due to the robo call fines plus other debts,” Burkman said in a text message to Boosie in late March, after the rapper had requested a return of half the fee. They appealed to Boosie for more time. “lets just focus right now on getting this pardon done. thx u!!” Burkman wrote.

For a time, the lobbyists seemed to have history on their side. Some of the president’s allies, led by DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin, have pushed in recent months for a mass pardoning to line up with America’s 250th birthday. At one point, according to several people familiar with the conversations in and around the White House, the discussion had centered on granting 250 pardons.

But the effort was a source of division within the White House, four sources with knowledge of administration’s new pardon process told NOTUS, dividing officials over the scope and scale, with no clear criteria of who should receive clemency.

“The idea of 250 pardons for 250 was nothing more than an idea thrown around by a small group, it was never seriously considered,” the White House official told NOTUS in a statement. “The President is the only one who has the authority to grant pardons, not individuals who are looking to will their ideas into existence. We are focused on justice, not numbers.”

It’s unclear whether Boosie was under consideration for one of these potential pardons, which some expected to happen in full by July 4. But he did not receive one.

The business relationship between the lobbyists and Boosie was terminated in March.

A separate pardon application filed directly to the White House by Blanco is under review, according to emails reviewed by NOTUS. But Blanco notes that effort has no connection to the pardon process Burkman and Wohl purported to have launched for the rapper.

A White House official confirmed that an application was received from Blanco but said, “receipt of documents should not be taken to mean anything other than documents have been received.”

Boosie and his team remain hopeful about his chances for clemency. In January, a federal judge sentenced Boosie to 10 days of time served in prison and three years of supervised release, and he’s in the midst of more legal trouble. Federal prosecutors are seeking to revoke his supervised release for the federal gun charge, after he was accused of violating the conditions in May.

“When people are in difficult situations, you know, they always want to have hope, right? You always want to have that tangible notion that this might turn out okay,” said Craft, one of Boosie’s lawyers handling the arbitration. “And unfortunately, I mean, in this society of ours, there are people who, you know, recognize that in others and prey on it.”