Trump Said To Be Seriously Considering a Pardon for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, as Judge Ponders Whether To Release Producer From Squalid Jail

President Trump is considering an immediate presidential pardon for the disgraced music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, if the judge denies the rapper’s pending bail application, according to multiple reports in the Hollywood press. Mr. Combs, a major figure in the entertainment industry who was convicted on prostitution charges in early July but acquitted of the more serious charges in his high-profile sex-trafficking trial, has been incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in September 2024. The notorious federal jail also houses Luigi Mangione, the young man accused of shooting the United Healthcare CEO, and is known for rather bleak living conditions.On Tuesday, Mr. Combs’s attorneys asked that their client be released on bail while he awaits his sentencing hearing, scheduled for October 3. In their letter, the attorneys described the conditions at the jail as “dreadful,” with “continued reports of inordinate periods of lockdown.” It was the fifth time since the arrest that the rapper’s attorneys asked for bail. Three different district judges, including the one who presided over his trial, denied the requests, citing concerns about violence, potential witness intimidation, and flight risk. The presiding district judge, Arun Subramanian, has yet to rule on the latest request.Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, center, reacts after he was denied bail on prostitution-related offenses, July 2, 2025, in Manhattan federal court in New York. AP/Elizabeth WilliamsOn Wednesday, TMZ, a closely read entertainment news publication that specializes in the legal travails of celebrities, reported that “sources with direct knowledge” told the outlet that the president is “more than open” to a pardon, but that he wants to wait until the judge decides on the bail petition. If the judge grants bail, the president would hold off on the pardon, the sources claimed, until after the sentencing date. If, however, the judge denies bail and keeps Mr. Combs locked up, the president could grant a pardon “immediately.” Similar reports surfaced on Wednesday in Deadline, another Hollywood news publication. An administration source told the Hollywood outlet that the president is “seriously considering” a pardon for Mr. Combs, that his allies have been pounding at the White House doors, begging for a clemency deal, and that the issue has “leveled from ‘just another Trump weave to an actionable event.’” During the trial, Rolling Stone reported that a well-funded effort was under way, on Mr. Combs’s behalf, to convince Mr. Trump issue the pardon.When the president was asked by reporters in the Oval Office on May 30 — during the trial — about a possible pardon, he said, “Nobody’s asked. But I know people are thinking about it. … First of all, I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely, although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage.” Then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is outside court during the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex trafficking trial, June 3, 2025. AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, FileIn recent days, all the pardon questions put to Mr. Trump in his various media availabilities have focused on a past denizen of the Metropolitan Detention Center, Ghislaine Maxwell. Mr. Combs had been charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for the purpose of prostitution and faced life imprisonment. He was accused of coercing his two former girlfriends, Cassandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, into taking drugs and having sex with male prostitutes, while he watched and pleasured himself. The alleged coercion tactics included physical abuse, blackmail, and threats. After an eight-week-long trial at the Southern District of New York, the jury found Mr. Combs not guilty of the most serious charges, and convicted him only of the two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, which each carry a maximum of 10 years in prison but are usually sentenced with more leniency, say three to four years or less. In May, Mr. Trump told reporters that he “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.” A supporter and friend of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Charlie Lucci, holds up a shirt outside Manhattan federal court on July 2, 2025. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images“I haven’t seen him, I haven’t spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics … that relationship busted up, from what I read. I don’t know, he didn’t tell me that, but I’d read some little bit nasty statements,” the president added. In an interview with a radio host and television presenter, Charlamagne tha God, that aired shortly before the 2020 election, Mr. Combs, then a billionaire at the height of his powers, said, “I really think if Trump gets elected, I really do believe in my heart there’ll be a race war. … This man is really trying to turn us against each other.” Later in the interview he added, “White men like Trump need to be banished.” Mr. Combs endorsed President Biden in 2020, but did not make an official endorsement for any candidate in 2024, probably because by that time, he was under federal investigation. Mr. Combs did however host a fundraiser for Vice President Harris, when she first ran for the presidency 2020, for which she thanked him in a tweet, writing, “Thank you,@Diddy, for hosting this town hall last night. There’s a lot at stake for our communities right now and it’s critical we bring to the forefront how coronavirus is perpetuating racial inequality and health disparities.”Despite Mr. Combs’s political preferences for Democratic candidates, numerous old photographs circulating on the internet show him and Mr. Trump standing next to each other, smiling. The two New Yorkers used to frequent the same parties in the 1990s, as both men rose to stardom. Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs appear at the premiere of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, FileIn the Season 12 premiere of “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump told Aubrey O’Day, who used to sing in the band Danity Kane, which was signed to Mr. Combs’s record label, Bad Boy Records, that he thought the producer was “a good guy” and that “I’m going to stick up for him.” According to the TMZ’s sources, the president has sympathy for Mr. Combs because he believes the rapper was unjustly prosecuted by the federal government, like he was. The Department of Justice recently fired the lead prosecutor in Mr. Combs’s case, Maurene Comey from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Comey is the daughter of a former director of the FBI, James Comey, whom Mr. Trump despises, and according to ABC News Mr. Trump “privately vented about having a Comey work in his administration.” Furthermore, Ms. Comey prosecuted both Jeffrey Epstein and his long-time associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. TMZ’s sources believe that a pardon for the rapper would be “perfect,” because it would distract from the ongoing Epstein saga. Neither the White House nor the president have released any official statements regarding Mr. Combs’s possible clemency.

Trump Said To Be Seriously Considering a Pardon for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, as Judge Ponders Whether To Release Producer From Squalid Jail

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