‘The Apprentice’ connection helps free South Florida rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black
A fired contestant on Donald Trump’s former reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” helped free South Florida rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.
The lawyer who represented them in their presidential clemency victories this week also competed on Trump’s popular program during its second season in 2004. His name: Bradford Cohen of Fort Lauderdale.
Despite his strong performance, Trump told Cohen, “You’re fired,” in week two after the lawyer made a strategic blunder by giving up his “immunity” to protect a weaker team member.
Still, Cohen developed a friendship with Trump over the years and remained close enough through his presidency to finesse a pardon for Lil Wayne and commutation for Black. Lil Wayne, 38, pleaded guilty last month to being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun during a trip to Miami and was potentially facing a few years in prison. Black, 23, was serving nearly four years for lying about his criminal history on a background check to buy firearms at a local gun shop.
“We’ve stayed in touch over the years,” Cohen told the Miami Herald about his relationship with Trump, sharing stories about everything from college football to criminal justice reform.
Asked if their friendship helped his two clemency clients, Cohen demurred:
“I don’t know if it would put me over the top in this situation.”
As a criminal defense lawyer, Cohen said he has worked on clemency petitions for other convicted felons in the past and pushed for sentencing reforms in the criminal justice system, including the 2018 First Step Act, Trump-backed legislation that provides a way for prisoners to seek “compassionate release.”
But at the same time, Cohen happens to be a former “Apprentice” contestant with an enduring Trump connection — he would call him “the boss” and even represented the president’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Also significant, Cohen has forged relationships with hip-hop artists through his work as an attorney, bringing Lil Wayne and Black to Trump’s attention.
During the presidential election season, Lil Wayne was one of the few prominent rappers to voice support for the polarizing president, tweeting a photo of them together in October at the Trump National Doral Golf Club..
Who arranged their meeting? Cohen. “I reached out to the White House and told them that Lil Wayne wanted to discuss criminal justice reform and that he wanted to see if he could meet with the president,” said Cohen, declining to say whether he spoke directly with the president about it.
LIL WAYNE’S
WEAPONS CHARGES
Lil Wayne, who at the time was publicly under federal investigation, praised Trump for “what he’s done so far on criminal reform” in his tweet, which caused a bit of a backlash on social media.
Cohen said he did not arrange the meeting with Trump to boost the rapper’s chances for clemency. “I didn’t anticipate anything about Lil Wayne or his case,” said Cohen, who was not the hip-hot artist’s defense attorney. “I didn’t think they were ever going to charge him.”
Nineteen days after Lil Wayne’s photo with Trump was posted on Twitter, a
Miami grand jury indicted the rapper. Last month, the rapper entered a guilty plea to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, triggering a previous offense dating back more than a decade in New York.
Cohen said he only started working on Lil Wayne’s clemency petition after the rapper was charged in mid-November — almost a full year after investigators found a gold-plated .45caliber handgun in his bag on a private charter flight from Los Angeles to Miami.
Local and federal authorities discovered the weapon, which was loaded with six rounds of ammunition, during a search of the jet on Dec.
23, 2019, at Opa-locka Executive Airport. The rapper was not arrested at the scene but instead was allowed to leave with the rest of his entourage. At the time, he was visiting his waterfront mansion on upscale Allison Island in Miami Beach.
Trump’s statement on pardons and commutations released early Wednesday said Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., “has exhibited [a] generosity through commitment to a variety of charities, including donations to research hospitals and a host of food banks.”
The statement also cited the support of former NFL star Deion Sanders, who said the rapper is “a provider for his family, a friend to many, a man of faith, a natural giver to the less fortunate, a waymaker, [and] a game changer.”
Cohen said Lil Wayne was “thrilled” with
Trump’s clemency decision.
KODAK BLACK’S CASE
In Black’s case, a Miami federal judge sentenced the local rapper to three years and 10 months, less than the maximum 10-year sentence he could have received. He has served about half of his sentence. Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, pleaded guilty in August 2019 to lying on a background form when he purchased handguns at a Hialeah weapons store that January, and again in March of that year, when he attempted to buy more guns. He apologized to the court as well as to his family and friends.
Cohen said he helped Black, whom he defended in the gun case, gain his freedom by arranging for potentially influential people to write letters to Trump on the rapper’s behalf. In an interview with The New York Times published online Wednesday, Cohen said the president had a rapport with rappers because of his past in show business.
In the Times’ story about Trump’s relationship with the hip-hop world, Cohen said no one was paid to write letters of support.
“While many paid thousands of dollars to lobby for clemency, Mr. Cohen said he instead relied on a monthslong social media and letter-writing campaign, recruiting notable figures like Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens and the former New York Police Department commissioner Bernie Kerik to vouch for Black’s character and philanthropy,” the
Times reported.
“Our route was less conventional,” Cohen told the Times. “We had supporters like Gucci Mane and Lil Yachty and Vanilla Ice,” Cohen said. “We did everything that we could to get eyes on it.”
The president’s clemency statement on Black said he had the support of “numerous religious leaders,” as well as Kerik, Jackson and the three rappers. He also had the backing of school-safety activist Hunter Pollack, the brother of Meadow Pollack, one of the shooting victims of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.
Trump’s statement said Black “became deeply involved in numerous philanthropic efforts” and supports charitable efforts that help the families of slain police officers and needy school children.
In a tweet posted on Wednesday, Black said: “I Want To Thank The President @RealDonaldTrump For His Commitment To Justice Reform And Shortening My Sentence. I Also Want To Thank Everyone For Their Support And Love. It Means More Than You Will Ever Know. I Want To Continue Giving Back, Learning And Growing.”
Both Lil Wayne and Black were among the 143 pardons and commutations announced by Trump during his final hours in office Wednesday. They joined two other artists from the hip-hop scene: Desiree Perez, the chief executive of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, and Michael Harris, known as Harry-O, a founder of Death Row Records who had been in prison for 30 years.