Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump issued pardons to 73 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others, the White House announced early Wednesday, hours before the end of his term.
The pardons included one for Trump’s former campaign manager and senior adviser Steve Bannon, who was charged with defrauding thousands of investors who believed they were giving money to a project to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. Prosecutors alleged Bannon instead used more than a million dollars to pay a campaign official and personal expenses for himself.
Also receiving a pardon was Elliot Broidy, a former top Trump fundraiser who pleaded guilty last year to violating foreign lobbying laws.
Trump commuted the sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was serving more than 20 years in prison for using his positions as an elected official to conduct extortion, bribery and fraud.
The president also granted a pardon to Dwayne Carter Jr., a rapper known by the name Lil Wayne who had pled guilty to a federal weapons charge.
Trump had already issued a number of pardons for longtime associates and supporters, including another former campaign manager Paul Manafort, adviser Roger Stone, his first national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law.
