Trump issues series of pardons for politicians, a union leader and a rapper

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday, awarding them to a former New York congressman, a Connecticut governor, a rapper known as “NBA YoungBoy,” a labor union leader and a onetime Army officer who flouted safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump’s actions mixed his willingness to pardon prominent Republicans and other supporters, donors and friends with the influence of Alice Marie Johnson, whom Trump recently named his pardon czar after he offered her a pardon in 2020.

He commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado. Hoover was first imprisoned in connection with a murder in 1973, and was convicted of running a criminal enterprise in 1998, but later renounced his criminal past and petitioned for a reduced sentence. He remains incarcerated on state charges.

Louisiana rap artist NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden and whose stage moniker stands for “Never Broke Again,” also received a Trump pardon.

In 2024, he was sentenced to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a convicted felon. Gaulden also pleaded guilty to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring in Utah.

Gaulden's and the other pardons were confirmed Wednesday evening by two White House officials who spoke only on condition of anonymity to detail actions that had not yet been made public.

In a statement posted online, Gaulden said, “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.”

He said this “opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for and I am fully prepared to step into this,” and thanked Johnson.

Trump has spent the week issuing high-profile pardons. Video released by a White House aide showed Johnson in the Oval Office on Tuesday, as Trump called the daughter of Todd and Julie Chrisley of the reality show “ Chrisley Knows Best " to say he was pardoning them.

Their show spotlighted the family’s extravagant lifestyle, but the couple was convicted of conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta area out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, addressed the Republican convention last summer and had long said her parents were treated unfairly.

Also Wednesday, Trump pardoned James Callahan, a New York union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to report $315,000 in gifts from an advertising firm and was about to be sentenced.

And the president pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a Republican who served from 1995 to 2004 and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for charges related to concealing his involvement in two federal election campaigns.

He also pardoned Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after being convicted of tax fraud. Grimm won reelection in 2014 despite being under indictment for underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant that he ran.

Grimm eventually resigned after pleading guilty and serving eight months in prison. Last year, Grimm was paralyzed from the chest down when he was thrown off a horse during a polo tournament.

Yet another Trump pardon was issued for Army Lt. Mark Bradshaw, who was convicted in 2022 of reporting to work without undergoing a COVID-19 test.

Alice Marie Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation. Trump commuted her life sentence in 2018 at the urging of celebrity Kim Kardashian West, allowing for Johnson’s early release.

Johnson then served as the featured speaker on the final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention, and Trump subsequently pardoned her before more recently naming her his pardons czar.

FILE - Former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland leaves federal appeals court in New York on March 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

FILE — Former Rep. Michael Grimm arrives to his polling site in the Staten Island borough of New York, June 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - Julie Chrisley, right, and her husband Todd Chrisley pose for photos at the 52nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards April 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

A fan takes a photo with Savannah Chrisley, daughter of reality television star Todd Chrisley, after she spoke outside the Federal Prison Camp, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)