Donald Trump confirmed on Monday (Oct. 6) that Sean “Diddy” Combs asked him for a presidential pardon. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said the disgraced hip-hop mogul’s team had reached out to ask about the pardon, but the president seemed on the fence about granting one.
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Combs was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of two felony counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. After a reporter asked about the request, Trump said, “A lot of people have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy,” in reference to one of several nicknames the Bad Boy Records boss has gone by over the past three decades. “He has asked me for a pardon.”
While Trump did not elaborate on the ask or indicate how, or if, he will grant it, in August he told a Newsmax reporter that he though Diddy was “essentially, I guess, sort of half-innocent,” seemingly referring to Combs being found guilty of the two charges while being acquitted of the more serious felony charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. “He’s still in jail or something, but he was celebrating a victory. But I guess it wasn’t as good of a victory,” Trump added.
At the time, Trump said the two were once “very friendly” and that he “got along with him great,” but noted their dynamic shifted when he entered politics more than a decade ago, describing Combs as becoming “very hostile” in the years since. Back in May, Trump told Fox News that he would “look at the facts” of the Diddy case.
“I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Trump said at the time. “He used to really like me a lot. I think when I ran for politics, that relationship busted up. … I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me, it wouldn’t have any impact on me.”
In August, one of Diddy’s lawyers told CNN that it was her “understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” without offering any additional details.
In the meantime, according to the Associated Press, Diddy’s lawyers have requested that he be sent to the low-security FCI Ford Dix federal prison in New Jersey to serve out his four-year term, telling judge Arun Subramanian on Monday that the facility’s drug treatment program would be helpful. Attorney Teny Geragos wrote that the residential drug treatment program at Fort Dix will allow Combs to “address drug abuse issues and to maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts.”
Combs’ trial revealed lurid details about his so-called “freak-off” parties, where his girlfriends consumed a variety of legal and illicit drugs while engaging in elaborate sex performances for his pleasure. Combs has been in federal jail in Brooklyn since Sept. 2024 and because he was convicted on federal charges his case is open to a potential pardon, or commutation, from Trump.
The president has pardoned a number of prominent figures who’ve supported him or spoken kindly of him — in addition more than 1,500 January 6 rioters — including reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, among others. Trump has also issued pardons or commutations for a number of hip-hop figures including NBA YoungBoy, Death Row Records co-founder Michael “Harry-O” Harris, and Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.
