Key Takeaways
- Facing a federal gun conviction from a 2023 San Diego arrest and up to 15 years, Boosie Badazz paid far-right operatives Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl $600,000 to lobby Donald Trump for a pardon that never came.
- Boosie says Burkman and Wohl repeatedly told him a Trump pardon was basically a done deal and name-dropped figures like Laura Loomer and Mike Cernovich, but those same people later went public saying they never backed or even knew about his pardon push.
- After getting a light sentence of supervised release, Boosie is now locked in arbitration trying to claw back $300,000, while new legal trouble in Houston and a possible federal re-sentencing hang over him.
Boosie Badazz made an expensive last-ditch effort to clean up his rap sheet and avoid prison, and now he’s saying he’s been scammed out of $600,000 by a pair of lobbyist felons.
Earlier this week, the website NOTUS published an investigation into the Louisiana rapper’s attempt to get a pardon from President Trump by hiring a firm to lobby for him. Per the terms of the contract between the rapper and the lobbying firm, which NOTUS was able to get, Boosie paid them $600,000, with half of it to be refunded if they were unsuccessful by January 31 of this year (the lobbyists dispute this, as we’ll see).
January 31 came and went, Boosie didn’t get his pardon. But he also didn’t get any money back. And now he has his doubts that the lobbyists he hired actually did what they said they did — doubts that have only been strengthened since the news broke, as many of the right-wing figures the lobbyists said they’d gotten on their side denied agreeing to help Boosie, or in some cases even knowing who he was.
So here’s a timeline of the Boosie pardon situation, the only news story perhaps ever to have both Boosie Badazz and Laura Loomer play prominent roles.
May 6, 2023: The arrest
Boosie is in San Diego for a concert, and decides to film a music video. A San Diego cop sees an Instagram live (called a “live story,” confusingly, in court documents). It is posted by, per prosecutors, a “known Neighborhood Crip gang member.” On that IG story, they see Boosie with a gun tucked into the back waistband of his pants.
The cops locate the area where Boosie is, and send an airborne unit over there. They witness him get into an SUV. Then police in the area see the driver of that SUV make several traffic violations, so they pull him over. They find several weapons, including one that appears to be the same gun they saw on IG. They also find what they think is a joint. The gun Boosie is seen on video with is from out of state, which will be important later.
Boosie is arrested and booked on four charges: felon in possession of a firearm, concealed carry weapon in a vehicle, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person and unlisted owner of a registered firearm. That would eventually get narrowed down to a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
June 21, 2023: Federal case #1 begins
State charges for the incident are ultimately dismissed. Then the feds step in, charging Boosie with being a felon in possession of a gun. The reason it’s a federal case is that, because the gun is from out of state, prosecutors can say that it is “a firearm that both traveled in and affected interstate commerce.”
May 9, 2024: Duarte decision made
A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in U.S. v. Duarte. It’s a case that doesn’t involve Boosie, but would have a direct affect on him. Essentially, the appeals court judges decide that bans on felons having guns are unconstitutional in some circumstances. As that was exactly what Boosie was charged with, it led to…
July 12, 2024: Boosie case dismissed
Boosie’s case was dismissed in light of the Duarte decision. Good news for him, right? Well, don’t get too excited.
July 17, 2024: Duarte decision overturned
The Duarte decision was so big and revolutionary that it caused entire Ninth Circuit to say, effectively, “Hey, wait a minute. Let’s re-think this.” The judges voted to re-hear the case en banc, meaning that now 11 judges would decide the case, not just the original three. Because of this, the Duarte decision was thrown out, so the 11-judge panel could decide anew. This cleared the way for Boosie to be charged again.
As a side note, in May 2025, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the Duarte decision, rejecting Second Amendment challenges to firearms bans for felons.
July 19, 2024: Federal case #2 begins
So with the Duarte case out of the way, Boosie was again charged for the San Diego incident. This time, in addition to the felon with a firearm charge, prosecutors slapped on a second charge of possessing a firearm while being addicted to drugs.
Boosie was, unsurprisingly, pretty upset by this turn of events.
“I’M ON VACATION WITH MY FAMILY MY LAWYER CALL ME N SAY THIS FEDERAL PROSECUTOR M.WHEAT HAS INDICTED ME AGAIN ON THE SAME CHARGE N ADDED A CHARGE THAT I WAS A DRUG [ADDICT] AROUND A FIREARM SMH .WHY YOU DIDNT CHARGE ME WITH THAT THE FIRST TIME? THE JUDGE HAS RULED .AT THIS POINT YOU MAKING THIS A CIRCUS .THIS HAS TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL,” he wrote on X.
August 31, 2024: Boosie asks for a pardon
Boosie asks both Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — whichever one of them wins the then-upcoming presidential election — for a pardon via social media.
“MY CASE GOT DISMISSED FOR A RULING THAT WAS MADE N THE 9th CIRCUIT COURT .2 WEEKS LATER THE RULING GETS VACATED,” he wrote on X. “SMH SOON AS I CELEBRATE THE LAW IS VACATED GTFOH I GOT SOME POWERFUL PEOPLE WHO HATE ME WITH EVERY BONE N THEY BODY. I WAS SENT TO PRISON FOR 10 YEARS FOR 3rd MARIJUANA. FOR BEING A USER LOL NO REHAB ,NO PROBATION SENT STRAIGHT TO PRISON .AT THIS POINT I NEED A PARDEN FROM WHOEVER WINS @VP @realDonaldTrump.”
Boosie would make a similar request in November, right after Trump won.
August 26, 2025: The guilty plea
Boosie stops fighting, pleading guilty to just the firearms count. (The drug one is dropped as part of the deal). He faces a maximum 15 year sentence. Whatever the outcome, he now has a federal conviction — one that he wants to get rid of. Enter…
September 30, 2025: Lobbyists hired
In order to ensure that the federal conviction is wiped off of his record — and that he wouldn’t have to serve whatever federal prison sentence might be on the way — Boosie hires the lobbying firm of JM Burkman & Associates in order to attempt to get a pardon from President Trump.
The contract Boosie says he signed with them (Burkman & Associates say that the rapper never got around to actually signing it) is full of mistakes. For example, it says Boosie pleaded guilty in the 2023 case, rather than the 2024 one. But the rough outline is this: Boosie will pay the firm $600,000. They will keep half of it no matter what, and half of it only if he gets a pardon by January 31, 2026.
So what is JM Burkman & Associates? Well, as we pointed out at the time, it’s a firm that consists of Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl. The two men, commonly referred to as “far-right operatives,” are primarily known for running robocall scams in order to suppress the Black vote in the 2020 election. They were convicted of this in multiple states.
They also have a history of attempting to manufacture false sexual assault allegations against perceived Trump enemies like Robert Mueller and Pete Buttigieg. On top of all that, they once fooled the Washington Post into reporting on a fake FBI raid on one of them.
September, 2025-January 2026: The lobbying effort
During the time they promised to get Boosie a pardon, the rapper says that Wohl and Burkman told him constantly that major Trump world names were on his side. In fact, per NOTUS, they made it seem like the pardon was “a done deal.”
They even, again per NOTUS, claimed that Trump had a pardon “in hand and is ready to sign,” and after that, that he had actually signed it and all that was left was the announcement.
Among the people Boosie says he was told were on his side were Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, and Jack Posobiec.
January 9, 2026: Boosie sentenced
Boosie gets off comparatively light, with no additional prison time and three years of supervised release.
March 25, 2026: Arbitration begins
Boosie files a complaint with the American Arbitration Association against Wohl and Burkman. He asks for the $300,000 refund that he says he’s entitled to, as well as damages for "extreme emotional distress,” and for being lied to and misled by the lobbyists.
Burkman and Wohl fire back several months later. In their response, they make several claims. First, they say Boosie physically threatened them, which they claim voided their contract. Second, they say Boosie never actually signed the agreement that contained the refund clause, so the whole thing doesn’t count anyway. They go out of their way to call Boosie “a violent convicted felon with a long list of convictions.”
March 30, 2026: Agreement terminated
In what is surely merely a formality by this point, Boosie’s agreement with the lobbying firm is officially ended.
May 24, 2026: Houston incident
In the early morning hours of May 24, Boosie allegedly assaulted a security guard at an H-Town nightclub, hitting him in the head with the base of a hookah. According to a criminal complaint, the security guard ended up needing eight staples to the head. The rapper is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Harris County (Texas) state court.
When news of the incident and subsequent charge breaks a week later, Boosie dismisses it as a “money grab.” The case is still ongoing.
Notably, this case, even though it’s state and not federal, may have knock-on effects with the feds. One month after the Houston incident, federal prosecutors in the San Diego case demand that his light sentence there be reconsidered because of the Houston incident — both because of the alleged assault and because they say he neglected to get permission from probation to travel to Texas in the first place. On top of that, they say, he failed a drug test back in January, testing positive for marijuana. Also, he has made “no measurable progress” towards the 300 community service hours he said he’d do.
Prosecutors recommend that Boosie be re-sentenced in the San Diego case because of all of this, changing the sentence to 18 months in federal prison and 18 months of supervised release, on top of any sentence that may result from the Texas case. The fight over that is ongoing, with a hearing set for September 25.
July 13, 2026: NOTUS investigation
The NOTUS story, which you can read here, explodes, as attention is brought back to Boosie’s relationship with Wohl and Burkman.
That same day, Boosie responds to Burkman on X. He seems to be responding to a claim from Burkman that the Houston incident was what ruined his chance at a pardon.
“Jack shut yo lyin ass up, talking about this stuff n Houston messed up the pardon,” he begins in all caps. “U was sued in March [and] this happened at the end of May. Don’t start lying now.”
He also says that he’s getting ready to sue Burkman and Wohl in federal court.
“Everyone u said u reached out to for my pardon has said u r lying,” he continues. “Where did the money go?”
July 14, 2026: The list and the responses
Boosie began the following day by sharing on X a list of names of people he said he’d been given by Burkman and Wohl, writing that those folks were “mentioned in emails” to him from the lobbyists, presumably for working towards granting him a pardon.
The names on the list included Laura Loomer, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Erika Kirk, and more.
Within 90 minutes, Laura Loomer and Mike Cernovich both responded. Loomer said, “I…have no idea who you are” and “I…have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Cernovich said, “I…never recommended a pardon for you nor even knew you wanted one.”
Rep. Mace said that she had gotten one phone call, but “Our office promised nothing” and that no one ever followed up with her.
By the end of the day, even the White House had responded, telling Loren Lorosa that “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.”
Boosie, for his part, was grateful to Loomer and Cernovich for getting back to him.
So where do things stand now? Well, Boosie’s arbitration case against the lobbyists is ongoing, with Burkman and Wohl having filed a motion to dismiss it late last month. The rapper’s threatened lawsuit against the pair in federal court does not appear to have materialized yet.
Complex has reached out to Burkman and Wohl’s attorney in the arbitration case, and to Boosie’s longtime lawyer Meghan Blanco, for further comment.
