“Rosemond Would be Home for Christmas” Trump Told NFL Great Jim Brown and Staff in the White House
Habeas Corpus Petiton Filed In Federal Court on Behalf Rosemond Asks That He be Released
(Clarksville, West Virginia, October 7, 2021) James Rosemond, founder of Czar Entertainment, in New York, who has served ten years of nine consecutive lifetime sentences in Federal prison, today filed a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virgina, alleging that former President Donald J. Trump commuted his sentence prior to leaving office. He was never released.
According to the filing, “On December 18, 2020, then-President Donald J. Trump commuted Rosemond’s sentence to the time he had already served. President Trump telephoned Jim Brown (the former NFL running back, actor, and criminal justice advocate) and his wife Monique Brown (the director of a leading social justice organization), two of the numerous people who have supported Rosemond’s years-long efforts to obtain clemency. According to the sworn declarations submitted by the Browns in support of this petition, President Trump said, in a room full of his staff, that he had “looked at everything” Rosemond submitted, that he “believe[d] you guys” (Rosemond and the Browns), and that Rosemond would be “home for Christmas.” The Browns took that statement to mean exactly what it said: that “Rosemond’s sentence was commuted on December 18, 2020,” and that he would be freed and sent home within a week. “
According to sworn affidavits submitted with the filing, Jim Brown stated, “On December 18, 2020, President Trump called me and informed me that he had decided to commute Mr. Rosemond’s sentence to the time he had already served in prison.
“During this conversation, President Trump told people in the room with him: “Let’s get this guy home for Christmas.” He told me that he had “looked at everything”—meaning the materials we had provided about Mr. Rosemond’s case—and “believe you guys” that Mr. Rosemond’s sentence should be commuted. “I want to do this,” President Trump added, referring to the commutation.”
Donald Trump called Jim Brown and NFL great Herschel Walker and told them he was granting the clemency and he would be home for Christmas. Senior advisor to the President Jared Kushner also called Rosemond’s attorneys and Michael J. Williams and told them Rosemond had been granted clemency and would be released from USP Hazelton Federal prison in Bruceton Hills, West Virginia. The White House informed the family to “pick Jimmy up the following Tuesday or Wednesday.” They then went 400 miles from Brooklyn to pick up Rosemond upon his release days before Christmas.
According to the submission, “An act of clemency need not be conveyed in any particular form so long as the President communicates it publicly; it does not have to be in writing or announced to any specific person or entity. Second, the wording of the clemency does not matter so long as the President reasonably conveys the clemency decision; no legal phrasing, such as “pardon” or “commutation,” is necessary to accomplish an act of clemency. Third, once the President completes an act of clemency, it cannot be revoked, either by the President granting clemency or by his or her successor.
Michael Rayfield, of Mayer Brown LLP, Rosemond’s attorney, said, “I’ve had the privilege of representing Jimmy Rosemond for over six years, and I’ve never had any doubt that he was wrongfully convicted. On December 18, 2020, President Trump reached the same conclusion: He commuted Jimmy’s sentence to the time he had already served in prison and announced that Jimmy would be “home for Christmas” (which was the following week). Unfortunately, the record of President Trump’s decision was never transmitted to the warden of the prison, and Jimmy is now being held in custody in violation of his constitutional rights.
“As our petition explains, the President completes an irrevocable act of clemency—here, a sentence commutation—by publicly communicating the clemency decision. Neither the form nor the wording of the clemency decision is relevant under the law, and once it happens, it can’t be reversed regardless of whether any record is delivered. Simply put, Jimmy is serving a sentence that no longer exists.
“I continue to be hopeful that the Biden Administration will act on Jimmy’s commutation. But as an alternative, we’ve sought habeas corpus relief in federal court. This exact situation is unprecedented, but it’s clear to me that Jimmy doesn’t belong in prison for another day.”
In conclusion to the petition, “The Court should grant Rosemond’s petition for writ of habeas corpus and direct the Warden of USP Hazelton to release Rosemond from prison immediately.”
Rosemond grew up poor in Brooklyn, NY in 1965. In 1996, Rosemond founded Henchmen Records, which would later become Czar Entertainment, a music management company based in Manhattan. Rosemond represented multiple high-profile musicians, actors, and athletes, including Mike Tyson, Michael K. Williams, Wyclef, Brandy, Salt‑N‑Pepa, and Akon.
James Rosemond was charged and convicted of violating the federal “Drug Kingpin” statute based on the testimony of five informants who were found with contraband and were facing long sentences, one of whom later admitted that he was the “kingpin but they wanted Jimmy [Rosemond].” These witnesses each served less than four years in prison and have been home since 2014 or earlier.
Rosemond maintains his innocence. He was tried four times and had his murder conviction overturned by the Second Circuit Federal Court after it was revealed that the key government witness told prosecutors that “Rosemond never ordered him to commit a murder.” He told the government from the beginning—both in private meetings and at trial—that Rosemond “never told me to murder Lowell Fletcher” and “never mentioned killing Fletcher at all.”
Rosemond was sentenced to a total of nine consecutive life sentences. He has been in federal custody since 2011.
In January 2015, Rosemond began to seek clemency from the Obama Administration, and he continued those efforts after President Trump was elected. His clemency petition received overwhelming support from diverse sectors of society. Among his most ardent supporters were Jim and Monique Brown, and actor Michael K. Williams who led the effort to seek to overturn his conviction and then a commutation. While they had worked for years, it was during the famous Oval Office meeting with Kanye West in October of 2018, that Jim Brown and his attorney presented President Trump with evidence supporting Rosemond’s innocence and requesting he commute Rosemond’s sentence to time served, which he subsequently did.
Weldon Angelos, prison reform activist and president of The Weldon Project/Mission Green, said “Being an activist on criminal justice reform and a person who was once sentenced to 55 years in prison for a small amount of marijuana, I know everyone needs a second chance ,and Jimmy Rosemond should not be excluded from this consideration and sentenced to death by incarceration. “
Don Sikorski, producer of, UNJUST JUSTICE, a documentary on James Rosemond, said “Prosecutors used every unethical method to get a conviction. Jimmy Rosemond’s case is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the criminal justice system. How does a young black man from Brooklyn get more life sentences than El Chapo when both were accused of the same crime, sentenced in the same courthouse while they had no evidence against Jimmy Rosemond that he was a kingpin. Any President should be interested in this case.”