BATON ROUGE — Torence Hatch, known professionally as rapper Boosie Badazz, is seeking a $300,000 refund from lobbying firm JM Burkman & Associates after paying $600,000 in 2025 to secure a presidential pardon from Donald Trump that was never issued. Hatch is pursuing the refund through arbitration, claiming the lobbying effort failed to deliver on its promise despite his substantial payment.

Hatch’s 2025 payment to JM Burkman & Associates was intended to support a campaign for a presidential pardon related to his 2023 federal conviction for possessing a loaded pistol during a music video shoot in San Diego. As a previously convicted felon, Hatch was prohibited from possessing firearms, and his guilty plea in that case resulted in a sentence of three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service, and a $50,000 fine. Hatch also has a prior 2011 drug-trafficking conviction.

According to federal lobbying records, JM Burkman & Associates registered to contact the White House, the U.S. Department of Justice, and Congress on Hatch’s behalf. Lobbyists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman reportedly told Hatch’s attorneys that Trump had already signed the pardon and that they were only waiting for the White House to announce it. However, a White House aide later confirmed to Hatch’s attorney that no pardon request for him had been received.

Hatch described the lobbyists as “real aggressive” and said they acted as if they had direct access to Trump. He later publicly asked political figures including Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, Erika Kirk, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Representative Nancy Mace, and Representative Andy Biggs to confirm whether they had been contacted by the lobbying firm about his case.

Responses from those officials cast doubt on the scope of the lobbying effort. Laura Loomer stated she did not get “involved in this type of work and have no idea what you’re talking about.” She added, “No offense but I also have no idea who you are and have never heard of your case.” Representative Nancy Mace said her office received only a single email requesting a phone call and that “my staff took one phone call last October.” Mace emphasized that “our office promised nothing, and they never followed up.”

Jack Burkman defended the firm’s work, stating it conducted a “massive, highly tailored advocacy campaign across Congress, the executive branch and leading political influencers and media figures.” He also said, “We continue to believe that Boosie very much deserves a pardon.” JM Burkman & Associates maintains that no agreement was ever made to refund half the fee if the pardon was not secured.

The dispute between Hatch and the lobbying firm is now in arbitration through the American Arbitration Association. The original contract reportedly contained a typo referencing a refund deadline of “close of business” on January 31, 2025, though both parties intended the clause to apply to 2026. In 2025, JM Burkman & Associates reported $3.2 million in federal lobbying revenue, including Hatch’s $600,000 payment and $960,000 from another client during the same period.

Burkman and Wohl have a prior legal history involving fraudulent activity. In 2022, they pleaded guilty in Ohio to running an illegal robocall campaign targeting Black voters. They later paid $1.25 million to New York authorities and $5 million to the Federal Communications Commission to settle that case.

The case highlights vulnerabilities in the market for presidential clemency lobbying, where clients with criminal records may pay large sums to firms promising access to executive power. It also underscores ongoing scrutiny of lobbying tactics by figures with documented histories of deceptive conduct. The arbitration outcome could set a precedent for contractual accountability in high-stakes pardon campaigns that rely on perceived—but unverified—political connections.