What NBA YoungBoy’s Pardon Says About Celebrity, Controversy

Officials in Utah are perplexed by President Trump‘s decision to pardon YoungBoy Never Broke Again. On May 29, law enforcement officials in the county where YB was prosecuted last year reacted to the Louisiana rapper getting a legal pass from the POTUS on May 28.

“We feel strongly the Justice System in Cache County is far from a ‘weaponized system of justice,’” Sheriff Chad Jensen and County Attorney Taylor Sorensen wrote in a joint statement to The Salt Lake Tribune. “We are extremely proud of the work our investigator and prosecutors did on this case, as well as grateful for all the help we received from other local and federal agencies.”

NBA YoungBoy was one of 16 people pardoned in Trump’s latest round of reprieves. Most of those people on the receiving end of pardons and commuted sentences were celebrities or public figures, including Death Row Records cofound Michael “Harry O” Harris, former Governor of Connecticut, John G. Rowland, former N.Y. Representative Michael Grimm and reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley.

YB has a long criminal history, which includes aggravated assault with a firearm in 2017. The following year, he was charged with the kidnapping and aggravated assault of his then-girlfriend. This was followed by multiple firearm arrests.

On April 16, 2024, he was arrested at his home in Utah and charged with running a prescription drug fraud ring. Additionally, he was charged in Weber County, Utah, with the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon as a result of guns found in his home. After pleading guilty to the firearm charge and getting a suspended sentence for the drug charges, YB spent nearly a year behind bars. He was released to a halfway house on five years of probation in March. However, Trump’s hall pass means YB is in the clear.

“I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and giving me the opportunity to keep building—as a man, as a father and as an artist,” YoungBoy wrote on Instagram. “The moment means a lot. It opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for and I’m fully prepared to step into this.”

So, why did Trump, a staunch advocate against crime, decide to give YB a new lease on life? According to Trump’s “pardon Czar,” Alice Marie Johnson, there were a number of factors.

“I looked at the age and how this young man grew up. He grew up in a very impoverished neighborhood,” she recently told Fox News in the video below. “And the things that he had to face, NBA YoungBoy growing up. Most of those were gun charges without the guns being discharged.”

“But I also looked at what happened to him on a set where he was filming a video and he had a prop in the set,” she added, referencing YB’s arrest in Baton Rouge, La., in 2021. “That’s really where this came from. He didn’t come out of prison. He was given a pardon so he could have a new beginning. And the officers who in this particular case they came at him as though he was a terrorist and he was on a set, filming for a video. They gave him a gun charge for that… the officers who did this were all investigated and fired. So I look at the elements of what happened to this young man.”

All well and good. However, Top’s circumstances are similar to thousands of people who grew up in similar environments and are still stuck in the system. The only difference is they don’t have the money, means, celebrity and connections to get the attention of the president. Which brings Trump’s agenda into question.

Trump has been pushing the war on drugs. However, he also commuted the federal sentence of Chicago gang leader and drug kingpin Larry Hoover. A move rap star Ye has been requesting of the POTUS for years.

“There’s a lot of mixed messages and mixed signals [from the White House] which creates sort of chaos and uncertainty,” said Jeffrey Singer, a drug policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank. “On the one hand you’re threatening even tougher penalties on people who deal in drugs, while on the other hand you’re releasing drug dealers from prisons.”

During a recent press conference, Trump noted legal mistreatment as one of the factors in his decisions to hand out a pardon. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a fair method to Trump’s decision making. Being rich and/or famous certainly seems to help.

Read More: Trump’s Hip-Hop Hall Passes – Every Rapper Who Got a Pardon for Their Crimes