According to sources with inside knowledge on the matter, the final hours of Donald Trump’s presidency were rife with “chaos” because the then-outgoing president was absolutely consumed with furious rage toward world-renowned rapper, Snoop Dogg, per a new report from Rolling Stone.
The infamous rapper and actor, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, spent late 2020 and early 2021 working diligently behind the scenes to obtain executive clemency for his close friend Michael “Harry-O” Harris, — the co-founder of Death Row Records, who was convicted on charges of drug trafficking and sentenced to decades in prison — as well as other federal prisoners.
Snoop Dogg, of course, had to go through then-President Donald Trump to achieve executive clemency for his friend, but inside sources say Donald was far too consumed by and obsessed with previous insults that the rapper had lobbed at the then-president earlier in his presidency to even consider helping Snoop Dogg on his way out of the White House.
One former administration official as well as another individual who overheard him told Rolling Stone that Trump said, “Well, f–k him,” in regard to the rapper who was seeking help for his friend.
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Trump’s visceral and hateful reaction toward Snoop Dogg reportedly triggered a manic, chaotic frenzy in the final hours of Donald’s presidency by White House officials as well as outside allies, all working vehemently to somehow convince the outgoing president that the rapper was no longer angry at him and was worthy of his help now. According to interviews with former administration and campaign officials, sources who were close to Donald Trump at the time, and outside activists who worked closely with the Trump White House on this clemency project, this unhinged, petty anger-fueled chaos strung out into the literal final moments of Donald Trump’s White House term.
Activist Weldon Angelos, a former music producer who was also pardoned by Trump and worked closely on the project for Harris spoke with The Daily Beast at the time and said, “Snoop brought this case to me, and I brought Alice Johnson, [who was pardoned by Trump], on board to help it with me, and she brought it to the West Wing. In the past, the president has given her the ability to select cases, and she doesn’t get [clemency for] all of them… But with Mr. Harris, she is not taking no for an answer.”
Johnson obtained his pardon from Donald Trump thanks to efforts by reality TV star Kim Kardashian after being sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug charge.
The president knows about it,” Johnson said at the time. “I’ve spoken with Ivanka [Trump] and I’ve spoken with Jared [Kushner], and I’ve been told that President Trump is aware of the case and has been reviewing it. I’ve spoken to [White House chief of staff] Mark Meadows about it, and he said he’d take a look at it.”
However, individuals in Trump’s inner circle and a handful of administration officials, at some point, reminded the less-than-emotionally-mature president that Snoop Dogg had once called him a “motherf–king racist” and even recorded a music video that featured the rapper aiming a toy gun at the head of a clown that looked like Donald Trump. This, of course, triggered instant rage and indignance in the then-president who had already lost his bid for reelection.
Finding himself so suddenly enraged and furious, Trump ordered his aides to reject the request for clemency for Harris in an effort to punish Snoop Dogg for his past transgressions.
One former Trump White House official said, “It was chaos.”
Activists who had been working on the Harris project for months were left scrambling, calling in every favor in their books with senior administration aides and even Trump family members in a desperate attempt to change Trump’s mind, with no time to spare, in the final hours of his presidency. Insiders tried to convince Trump that the rapper was no longer angry with him. While Snoop Dogg was unwilling to grovel for Donald’s forgiveness and approval, Angelos was able to recall some unreleased documentary footage that featured the world-renowned rapper saying a few complimentary things about the then-president.
“I was aware that the [Daily Beast] article caused a problem for Mr. Harris’ clemency petition, and I was asked by someone close to the White House to send a clip of a previously recorded message from Snoop where he commended Trump’s efforts on criminal justice reform,” Angelos told Rolling Stone. “The campaign to free Harry-O was recorded for documentary purposes.”
The footage made it to Trump at the White House in just the nick of time and served to assuage Donald Trump enough for him to grant the clemency for Harris that people had been working so hard for, for so long.
On the evening of Jan. 19, 2021, with just literal hours left in Donald Trump’s presidency, Harris was informed that he would soon be released from prison.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Glenn Francis, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
