Rapper Boosie BadAzz is demanding a refund from a lobbying firm that failed to deliver a pardon from President Trump.
The Louisiana rapper approached Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl of JM Burkman & Associates in September 2025 and paid them $600,000 to secure a pardon from President Trump for federal gun charges from 2023, according to the sign agreement that as reviewed by The Post.
Boosie’s agreement shows that if the pardon was not obtained by 5:00 p.m. on Jan. 1, the firm had to provide a $300,000 refund.
“This contract was prepared by and signed by Burkman & Associates, including the return of funds provision,” Boosie’s Baton Rogue-based lawyer, Jill Craft, told The Post. “We expect them to live up to their end of the signed contract.”
The 43-year-old, whose real name is Torrence Hatch Jr., thought he was going to start 2026 on the right foot after receiving a New Year’s Eve text message from Burkman, who wrote that Trump had the pardon “in hand and is ready to sign,” according to online news outlet News of the United States.
The rapper received a call from his San Diego-based attorney on Jan. 1, Meghan Blanco, who told him that Burkman had informed her that the president had granted him legal forgiveness for possessing a firearm as a felon and that White House was going to make an announcement.
However, the presidential pardon was never signed. Blanco, who represented the rapper in the gun case, told the outlet that a White House aide informed her several days later that they had not seen an application for a pardon.
The White House did not reply to The Post’s request for comment.
A US District Judge in San Diego on Jan. 9 sentenced the rapper to three years supervised release and credited him for 10 days that he had served in jail. The sentence also included 300 hours of community service
Boosie filed a lawsuit March 25 with the American Arbitration Association, requesting that Wohl and Burkman return half of the retainer fee.
The rapper, who was arrested in May for assaulting a Houston nightclub bouncer, went after the lobbyists Monday on X.
“DONT START LYING NOW I GAVE U 3 MONTHS TO SEND MY MONEY BACK,” he wrote.
In a separate post, the rapper claimed Burkman and Wohl mentioned that they had reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ill), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and conservative activists and commentators Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobeich and Erika Kirk during his attempt to win a pardon.
Loomer and Cernovich reached out to Boosie via X to say that they were unaware of his case and were never involved.
Mace addressed Boosie’s concerns on X, posting: “Our office received an email requesting a phone call. My staff took one phone call last October. Our office promised nothing, and they never followed up. To our knowledge. More than willing to assist.”
“EVERYONE U SAID U REACHED OUT TO FOR MY PARDON HAS SAID U R LYING,” Boosie BadAzz wrote on X. “ITS GETTING HOT SO WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?”
In a statement to The Post, JM Burkman & Associates said it worked hard to win the pardon, but noted there was never an agreement to refund half of the retainer.
“In 25 years, we cannot think of a single client for whom our firm has done more work than Boosie,” the firm said. “No provision to return half the fee was ever actually agreed to.”
Wohl and Burkman have been in previous legal trouble.
In 2022, they pleaded guilty in Ohio to telecommunications fraud for operating an illicit robocall campaign reportedly targeting black voters. They also pleaded no contest in Michigan and reached an agreement with New York Attorney General Leticia James to pay a $1.5 million fine for running similar schemes.
