President Donald Trump is putting more and more thought into issuing a presidential pardon for Sean “Diddy” Combs before the disgraced music mogul’s upcoming sentencing, according to a report.
The idea is being “seriously considered” by the president, an administration source told Deadline, as Trump searches for a major distraction from the fallout of the Jeffrey Epstein files and his administration’s backpedaling on releasing them.
During Combs’ high-profile trial, Trump did not rule out issuing clemency for Combs but told reporters in May he would need to “look at the facts” first. The pair were close years ago, but the hip-hop veteran distanced himself from the Republican once he began running for office.
Sources told Deadline that the question of whether Trump should pardon Combs has evolved from “just another Trump weave to an actionable event” since the rapper and producer was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs, 55, faces a maximum of 20 years in jail when he is sentenced in October. The hip-hop star would have faced life in prison had he been convicted of the more serious racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking charges he faced.
The suggestion that Trump is giving the pardon serious thought comes as he continues to fumble attempts to shift attention away from Epstein, the billionaire pedophile who died in August 2019.
The self-inflicted furor, now stretching into weeks, stems from Trump’s walkback on promises to release all files related to Epstein and his administration’s denial of a so-called “client list” implicating powerful figures.
A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast they “will not confirm or deny pardons that may or may not happen.”
Combs’ defense team, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, told Deadline they had “no comment” regarding any potential request for a presidential pardon from Trump.
Trump has pardoned or given clemency to more than 1,600 people in the first six months of his second term, among them the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, rapper NBA YoungBoy, reality stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
On Tuesday, Combs asked a judge to release him on a $50 million bond ahead of his October sentencing.
In a twist, Combs is currently being held in the same New York City federal prison where longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was held before she was transferred to FCI Tallahassee in Florida in 2022.
In May, Trump lamented how Combs “used to really like me a lot” when asked whether he’d consider a pardon. “But I think when I ran for politics, that relationship busted up,” Trump said.
In a 2017 interview with the Daily Beast, Combs explained how he turned on Trump after he entered politics. “I think that to be honest, we don’t really give a f--- about Trump, because [Black people are] in the same f---ed-up position. So that’s not what we’re on. The tomfoolery that’s going on in D.C.”
Combs’ legal team did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
