Trump pardons rapper NBA Youngboy, who was sentenced for gun-related charges

Louisiana rap artist NBA YoungBoy, who was sentenced to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

The rapper is among a number of high-profile people Trump pardoned this week, including a former New York congressman, a labor union leader and a reality TV star couple.

“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," NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, said in a statement posted online.

Gaulden’s pardon was confirmed Wednesday evening by two White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail actions that had not yet been formally made public.

In 2024, Gaulden was sentenced by a federal judge in Utah after he acknowledged possessing weapons despite being a convicted felon. He reached an agreement that resolved Utah state charges against him and settled two sets of federal charges against him — one carried a 23-month sentence and the other ordered five years of probation and a $200,000 fine.

Gaulden was released from federal prison in March and sent to home confinement after receiving credit for time served, according to his attorney Drew Findling. With home confinement finished last month, the pardon means he won't have to follow the terms of his probation, including drug testing, he said.

Findling said he was thrilled Gaulden's legal saga had reached an end.

“From Louisiana to Utah the battles have been endless, and now he can concentrate on first and foremost his family, and then, of course, his amazing career,” Findling said in a statement.

The rapper has acknowledged that he possessed a Glock 21 .45-caliber pistol and a Masterpiece Arms MPA30T 9mm handgun while filming a rap video in Baton Rouge. He has also said he had a Sig Sauer 9mm semi-automatic pistol at his home in Huntsville, Utah. He had agreed to give up the guns.

Gaulden had previously been convicted in Louisiana of aggravated assault with a firearm, according to his statement released in advance of the plea agreement.

He had also pleaded guilty in November to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring that operated out of his home in Utah. He had to pay a $25,000 fine and was given no prison time.

The rapper, whose stage moniker stands for “Never Broke Again,” is preparing to set out on a major U.S. tour in September.

He has achieved four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and one Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. His music includes “38 Baby,” “Outside Today” and Tyler, The Creator’s song, “Wusyaname,” on which he is featured with Ty Dolla $ign. That collaboration earned them a Grammy nomination in 2022 for Best Melodic Rap Performance.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - NBA YoungBoy performs at the Lil' WeezyAna Fest at Champions Square, on Aug. 25, 2017, in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.

Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.

Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.

Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.

In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”

“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.

In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”

“A logical choice,” he added.

FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)