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President Trump pardons rapper NBA YoungBoy in flurry of clemency actions

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President Trump pardons rapper NBA YoungBoy in flurry of clemency actions
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump pardoned rapper NBA YoungBoy as part of a spree of reprieves this week, including one for a couple known on reality television and a commuted federal sentence for a former Chicago gang leader convicted of murder.

A White House official confirmed the May 28 pardon of Louisiana-based NBA YoungBoy, 25, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden.

He was serving a 23-month sentence for federal gun charges as part of a plea deal reached with federal prosecutors in December. The previous month, Gaulden pleaded guilty to his involvement in a Utah pharmacy drug ring, but he avoided incarceration and paid a $25,000 fine.

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“I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and for giving me the opportunity to keep building ‒ as a man, as a father, and as an artist,” Gaulden, whose rap name stands for “Never Broke Again,” wrote on his Instagram account. “This moment means a lot.” 

He added that the pardon “opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for and I’m fully prepared to step into this.”

The pardon means Gaulden will no longer have travel restrictions, allowing him to embark on a 32-date national tour set to kick off in September that he’s dubbed the “MASA tour” ‒ “Make America Slime Again.” It’s a riff on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Slime refers to a close friend or homie in hip-hop lingo.

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Trump has issued a slew of pardons that coincided with the first full week of Ed Martin serving as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. Trump had previously nominated Martin to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, but he withdrew in the face of Republican opposition on Capitol Hill over Martin’s support for Jan. 6 rioters.

Pardons fully wipe out a recipient’s guilt of a criminal act and any penalties tied to a conviction. Typically, a wave of pardons comes at the end of a president’s term. But Trump has smashed all norms, beginning with his day one pardons of more than 1,600 individuals charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump on May 27 pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley of the USA Network television show “Chrisley Knows Best” fame, in which they portrayed themselves as real estate tycoons in the South. The couple was found guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks in Atlanta out of more than $36 million in fraudulent loans.

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The next day, Trump commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, 74, a notorious former Chicago gang leader who co-founded the Gangster Disciples and was convicted in 1973 for the murder of a drug dealer. Hoover, who was serving six life terms for his federal charges, still must serve a 200-year sentence for his Illinois state charges.

Trump also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who resigned from his office after pleading guilty in late 2004 to one count of conspiring to commit tax fraud and depriving the public of honest service over $107,000 in gifts he accepted from companies doing business with the state.

Rowland, a former New York congressman, was later convicted of obstructing justice, conspiracy, falsifying government documents, and other violations of campaign finance laws. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

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Trump pardoned former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman from 2011 to 2015, who resigned after being convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to eight months in prison.

And as first reported by USA TODAY, Trump also pardoned former 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, a former U.S. Army officer who was found guilty by a special court martial during the Biden administration for refusing to follow COVID-19 safety measures.

The White House has not provided a full list of Trump’s pardons, deferring to the Department of Justice, which updates clemency actions on its website.

Contributing: Taijuan Moorman and Zac Anderson

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Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

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Read the Letter to the Inspectors General

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Read the Letter to the Inspectors General

Your investigation of these allegations is consistent with the IG’s mission to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies, and can help determine if politically connected crypto interests are undermining our national security. As Congress considers legislation on the market structure for digital assets, we must ensure that cryptocurrencies like USD1 are not providing the President and senior officials with the ability to line their pockets at the expense of the public interest.

The following facts have been reported in multiple outlets regarding Mr. Witkoff:

• Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach Witkoff is the CEO of World Liberty Financial (WLF), which the President’s family owns a majority stake in.³
• Beginning in January, one of Sheikh Tahnoon’s employees, Fiacc Larkin, joined WLF as the “chief strategic advisor” while continuing to work at G42, an AI investment firm owned by Sheikh Tahnoon that, according to the U.S. intelligence community, works closely with Chinese military companies.4



On May 1, 2025, Zach Witkoff announced that MGX, a state-owned investment firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, had agreed to use a WLF-issued stablecoin, USD1, to make a $2 billion investment in Binance. As a result of this deal, WLF stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in transaction fees from MGX, and more from the returns on any investments it makes with the $2 billion deposit.³
As of August, Mr. Witkoff maintained a financial interest in WLF and thus stands to personally benefit from his son’s business dealings with the UAE.6 Nevertheless, he did not recuse himself from deliberations regarding the UAE, which may violate federal ethics law.

The following facts have been reported about Mr. Sacks:







He is a special government employee who continues to serve as a “general partner” at his venture capital fund, Craft Ventures.

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The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, was an early investor in Craft Ventures and continues to hold an investment in the fund.
In addition, Craft Ventures is invested in BitGo, which has partnered with WLF to provide the technical infrastructure for USD1. If BitGo’s valuation grows, based on the UAE’s investment into USD1, Mr. Sacks and his firm stand to benefit.

3 Yahoo Finance, “Trump family reportedly has a 60% stake in the World Liberty Financial,” Anand Sinha, March 31, 2025,
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-family-reportedly-60-stake-172742661.html.
4 New York Times, “Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China,” Mark Mazzetti and Edward
Wong, Nov. 27, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/us/politics/ai-us-uae-china-security-g42.html.
5 New York Times, “At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage,” David Yaffe-Bellany, May 1, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-

announcement.html.

6U.S Office of Government Ethics, Form 278e for Steven C. Witkoff, August 13, 2025, p. 23, https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/090d0de07e1d2fdf/bbf02867-full.pdf.

18 U.S.C. § 208.

8 White House, “Limited Waiver Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1) Regarding A.I. Assets,” June 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/David-Sacks.pdf.

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Farage refuses to criticise Trump over paracetamol despite health experts dismissing autism claims

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Farage refuses to criticise Trump over paracetamol despite health experts dismissing autism claims

Nigel Farage has refused to criticise Donald Trump’s claims that paracetamol, sold in the US as Tylenol, could cause autism, insisting “science is never settled” and he would never “side with” medical experts.

The Reform UK leader said he had “no idea” if the US president was right to tell pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol and paracetamol, and suggesting that those who could not “tough it out” should limit their intake.

Scientists and global health agencies including the World Health Organization have strongly dismissed Trump’s false claims, calling them misguided and saying the evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism was “inconsistent”.

The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, told the British public they should not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine”, adding: “I trust doctors over President Trump frankly, on this.”

But in a wide-ranging interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Farage was asked directly if Trump was right to share those unproven claims. He said: “I have no idea, I’ve no idea. You know we were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it wasn’t. Who knows Nick, I don’t know.

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“He [Trump] has a particular thing about autism. I think because there’s been some in his family, he feels it very personally. I’ve no idea.”

When Farage was asked if he would side with medical experts who say it is dangerous to make the link, he added: “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. When it comes to science, I don’t side with anybody, right? You know? I don’t side with anybody, because science is never settled. We should remember that.”

Yet when challenged over whether it was irresponsible for Trump to make such an unproven claim, Farage said: “That’s an opinion he’s [Trump’s] got. It’s not one that I necessarily share.”

Farage’s refusal to condemn Trump’s claims comes weeks after a controversial doctor, Aseem Malhotra, was given top billing at Reform UK’s party conference and used his main-stage speech to claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family. Malhotra is an adviser to Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy.

In the same interview, Farage said Trump was “right to say” that sharia law “is an issue in London”.

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“Never take what he [Trump] says literally, ever on anything. But always take everything he says seriously,” Farage said, adding: Trump “has a point.”

“So is he right to say that sharia is an issue in London? Yes. Is it an overwhelming issue at this stage? No. Has the mayor of London directly linked himself to it? No.”

Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to reprimand Trump’s administration after the US president falsely claimed in a speech to the United Nations: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.

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“Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”

Trump has been publicly attacking the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, since 2015 when the Labour politician criticised Trump, the then presidential candidate, for suggesting that Muslims should be banned from travelling to the US.

A spokesperson for Khan said: “We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response. London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”

During the LBC phone-in, Farage also said Reform’s plan to ban anyone who was not a UK citizen from claiming benefits would not apply to Ukrainians and Hongkongers.

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“No, because they come for different reasons,” Farage said, adding those who had lived in the UK on indefinite leave to remain and had not worked or paid into the system would be told their benefits would be cut.

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Alphabet market value exceeds $3tn

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Alphabet market value exceeds tn

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Alphabet’s market capitalisation surged above $3tn for the first time on Monday on the back of a sharp rally for the search giant’s shares over the past few weeks.

Shares in Google’s parent company have climbed more than 30 per cent to a record high of $252 since the group posted double-digit growth in revenue and profit in quarterly results out in late July.

The rally means Alphabet joins Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple as the only US companies valued above $3tn. Chipmaker Nvidia in July became the first company to hit a $4tn market value.

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