South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Report: Trump considering pardon for Broward rapper Kodak Black
Jailed Broward County rapper Kodak Black could be pardoned by President Donald Trump, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report says that Trump is putting together a list of people he plans to pardon during the final days of his presidency including aides, family members and possibly even himself.
Also on the list is Black and another big-name rapper: Lil Wayne.
Black, 23, has been serving a three-year federal sentence after he pleaded guilty to falsifying information on federal documents used to buy guns from a Miami gun store. Black was arrested in May 2019 just before he was set to perform at the Rolling Loud festival at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Lil Wayne, who is originally from New Orleans but has maintained a residence in Miami Beach, pleaded guilty in December to illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon after a gold-plated handgun was found in a bag he had on board a chartered flight to Miami, the Miami Herald reported.
Wayne, 38, whose given name is Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., is currently free on $250,000 bond but faces a maximum of ten years in prison if convicted.
Lil Wayne also met with Donald Trump in October and voiced his support for Trump’s “Platinum Plan” for Black America.
Black, who legally changed his name from Dieuson Octave to Bill K. Kapri, grew up in Pompano
Beach’s Golden Acres public housing complex, has faced numerous legal problems over the past few years, including allegations of sexual assault in South Carolina.
Black’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, knows President Donald Trump personally after having been a contestant on Trump’s reality show “Celebrity Apprentice in 2009.”
In an email on Friday morning, Cohen said “we do not have any comment at this time” about the reports of the possible presidential pardon.
Black has also had some celebrity friends appealing for him to be pardoned in recent days. These include fellow Pompano Beach native and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and
Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty.
Black, along with late Broward rapper XXXTentacion, Lil Pump, who also endorsed Trump, and others, has been at the forefront of South Florida’s surging hip-hop scene in recent years, but his rise to fame has also played out in parallel with a seemingly constant stream of allegations, arrests, and stints behind bars.