The rapper Lil Wayne was among those reportedly expected to receive a pardon or clemency from Donald Trump on his last full day in office on Tuesday.
Sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters suggested that neither the president himself, nor Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, or former aide Steve Bannon would be on the list, which may number up to 100. Neither would members of Trump’s family get pre-emptive pardons, reports suggested.
While the legality of a presidential self-pardon remains untested, aides have cautioned Trump that pardoning himself and members of his family may imply guilt that becomes a liability in future state or civil lawsuits.
It has also been suggested that a self-pardon could antagonise some Republican senators who will be voting during the second impeachment trial, expected later this month.
Lil Wayne pleaded guilty last month to possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun when his chartered jet landed in Miami in December 2019. He faces up to 10 years in prison at a 28 January hearing in Miami.
The rapper appeared to support Trump during last year’s presidential campaign when he tweeted a photo of himself with the president and said he backed Trump’s criminal justice reform programme and economic plan for African Americans.
On Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported that the list of new pardons or acts of clememcy “includes the names of people who have been serving life sentences for drug or fraud charges and who for years have been seeking clemency”.
The paper said the White House was keen to blunt criticism for Trump’s handing of pardons to allies and cronies, reporting: “Tuesday’s group includes non-violent offenders whose names have been percolating for years among advocates who believe their punishments never fit their crimes and whose cases underscore the broken nature of the country’s criminal justice system.”
The Times also reported that the list of pardons and commutations was expected to include the former New York assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, 76, who was convicted of corruption charges in 2015. After a lengthy legal process, Silver was sentenced in July 2020 to six-and-a-half years in prison and a $1m fine. He is held in the federal prison at Otisville, New York.
Also said to be under consideration for a pardon was Sholam Weiss. Weiss was sentenced to 835 years in prison in 2000 for crimes including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. It is frequently described as the longest sentence imposed in the US for a “white collar” crime.
Bannon, 66, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he defrauded donors to “We Build the Wall”, an online fundraising campaign that raised $25m, was not expected to be on the list. Neither was Giuliani.
It has been reported Giuliani has fallen out with the president over unpaid legal fees, and the former New York mayor has recused himself from defending Trump in his Senate impeachment trial, since Giuliani was also involved in the rally on 6 January that preceded a pro-Trump mob ransacking the US Capitol.
He notoriously told the crowd “Let’s have trial by combat,” a remark he has since claimed was a reference to Game of Thrones.
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, another name frequently mentioned in connection to a possible Trump pardon, was also not expected to be on the list.
The list of pardons was prepared over the weekend in a series of meetings involving the White House counsel, Pat A Cipollone, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
It is traditional for US presidents to issue pardons and clemency at the end of their term in office. Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, George W Bush commuted the sentence of former staffer Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who had been found guilty of perjury, and Bill Clinton controversially pardoned the financier Marc Rich in a move widely criticised as being corrupt, after Rich’s ex-wife had made substantial donations to Clinton-related causes.
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