Former White House adviser Steve Bannon and rapper Lil Wayne are among the people being pardoned or granted clemency by Donald Trump in the final hours of his presidency.
The outgoing president granted clemency to 143 people on Wednesday.
Wayne pleaded guilty last month to possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun on a private flight in 2019. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison at a hearing next week.
Biden inauguration: Watch and follow events on Sky News from 1pm, with the ceremony starting at 4pm
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We pray for the new administration’
The president met the rapper during his election campaign last year, with the artist later praising some of Mr Trump’s policies such as proposed justice reforms.
Controversial former White House adviser Bannon, who was fired by Mr Trump, has also been granted clemency.
“Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen,” the White House said in a statement.
He was charged last year with swindling Trump supporters over an effort to raise private funds to build the US-Mexico border wall, and pleaded not guilty.
Bannon was appointed chief executive of Mr Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, leaving his role at conservative website Breitbart News.
Lil Wayne is also among a raft of 11th-hour pardons and commutations
He became chief strategist for Mr Trump after his inauguration, but clashed with others in the White House and was pushed out in August 2017.
Bannon was recently banned from Twitter after he called for the beheading of top government doctor Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray.
Others reportedly among the dozens of people being pardoned are Kodak Black – a rapper also sentenced over weapons charges, and former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who is seven years into a 28-year sentence for corruption and racketeering.
Mr Trump has previously pardoned several of his closest confidantes such as Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who lied to the FBI, and commuted the prison term for Roger Stone – who was convicted of lying to Congress during its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
