Trump Drops Raft of Pardons on His Way Out of the White House

Author:

M. Corey Goldman

Publish date:

Jan 20, 2021

Video Duration:

1:26

Now-former U.S. President Donald Trump dropped a raft of pardons in his final hours in the White House on Tuesday that spanned the gamut of known and unknown names across Wall Street, Silicon Valley and even pop-culture music and television.

The White House released a formal list of pardons and commutations on Tuesday that included the likes of former campaign advisor Stephen Bannon, convicted rapper Lil Wayne and Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer at Google's autonomous driving unit Waymo who was convicted of stealing trade secrets.

Lil Wayne, born as Michael Carer Jr., received a full pardon after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon in December. Another rapper, Kodak Black, was also pardoned by Trump: he was serving a four-year sentence for lying on background paperwork while attempting to buy guns.

Steve Bannon also got a pardon from Trump. The former advisor and avid Trump supporter had pleaded not guilty to charges that he defrauded donors in a "We Build the Wall" fundraising campaign. Trump reportedly deliberated for days whether to grant Bannon a pardon, given his possible connection to inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol storming.

Other notable pardons included Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer at Alphabet-owned Google's (GOOGL) - Get Alphabet Inc. Report autonomous driving unit Waymo who was convicted of stealing trade secrets, shaving off more than a year of his prison sentence.

Watch: Inauguration Day 2021

CLOSE

CLOSE

CLOSE

CLOSE