Boosie Badazz went on national television and said he paid $600,000 to two Trump-affiliated political operatives, who allegedly said they could get him a presidential pardon that never came.
The Louisiana rapper, whose legal name is Torrence Hatch Jr., discussed the deal during the season premiere of 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 13.
“This is what I was led to believe, if you come with this money, you will get a pardon,” Boosie said.
The 43-year-old rapper and others sat down with the program for a segment on “pardon brokers” — political operatives who charge massive fees while claiming they can get cases in front of President Trump.
Related: Boosie Badazz Scores Win and Avoids Prison in Federal Weapons Case
Boosie said he hired Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman of JM Burkman & Associates after pleading guilty in August 2025 to one federal count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to Boosie, he paid the men the entire $600,000 fee upfront and believed a pardon would follow.
“I just thought, this is the way it’s done,” he told correspondent Lesley Stahl. “I’m paying these guys, and they’re gonna make it happen.”
The rapper was sentenced in January 2026 to three years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service, as previously reported.
But the pardon never happened.
60 Minutes showed Boosie’s contract with the brokers on screen. It included a clause saying there would be a refund of “$300,000 to the client,” if the pardon was unsuccessful.
Still, the rapper said Wohl and Burkman refused to return the portion of his payment covered by a refund clause.
“It’s always a bunch of B.S.,” Boosie said of their reasons for allegedly withholding the money. “They were just so cocky.”
Wohl and Burkman denied wrongdoing when questioned by 60 Minutes.
“We don’t work for free any more than you do,” they told Stahl.
The dispute first became public in July, when political news website NOTUS reported Boosie was suing the two men in an attempt to recover the $300,000 refund.
60 Minutes reported some brokers have demanded as much as $3 million to push for pardons. It also said “92%” of Trump’s recent clemency decisions — including pardoning Jan. 6 rioters — have skipped the Justice Department’s normal pardon-review process.
“He’s developed his own vetting system, pardoning political allies,” the 60 Minutes report said.
The White House pushed back against suggestions that pardons are being exchanged for money.
“Anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money,” the administration said in a statement to the program. The statement also claimed Trump is deciding on pardons “in an ethically sound manner.”
After the episode aired, Boosie released a statement of his own on social media, saying a lot of his hour-long interview was left out.
Although he complained that his full story was not included, he said he believes appearing on the popular 60 Minutes will bolster his lawsuit and prove he deserves to be compensated “times 10.”
He also revealed he “sat down” with the White House “pardon czar” to explain why he thought he deserved a pardon, before hiring Wohl and Burkman.
The 60 Minutes report scrutinizing the Trump administration was surprising after MAGA-friendly CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss implemented major changes on the show last season.
Several prominent journalists left or were dismissed amid claims of political tampering by Weiss in the reporting process.
CBS has denied allegations that management pressured journalists to introduce political bias into the program’s stories.
You can read the transcript for the 60 Minutes segment here.
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