President Donald Trump said Monday that Sean “Diddy” Combs has requested a presidential pardon, days after the rap mogul was sentenced to more than four years in prison for transporting women and male sex workers across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties.
“I have a lot of people who have asked me for pardons,” Trump told White House reporters. “I call him ‘Puff Daddy’ has asked me for a pardon.”
Combs, 55, was sentenced to 50 months in prison Friday following his July conviction on two prostitution offenses alleging Mann Act violations. Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian said the mogul abused power and control over women he “professed to love dearly” in ruthless “subjugation” continuing approximately 15 years.
Subramanian cited “massive” evidence of Combs’ abusive behavior at “freakoffs”, marathon sexual performances he orchestrated documented in “images of gashes, bruises, broken doors” and footage showing him savagely beating Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Lawyers and representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to Monday comment requests. Beyond his criminal matter, Combs faces more than 100 civil lawsuits containing sexual violence and exploitation allegations dating back decades. He has denied the claims.
Barring a pardon, Combs hopes to be sent to FCI Fort Dix, according to a Monday filing by his lawyers. His legal team asked Subramanian to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that the mogul serve his term at the low-security federal prison in New Hanover Township, N.J., citing its drug addiction programs “and any other available educational and occupational programs.”
Trump didn’t specify when Combs made the request but revealed the mogul was seeking help while answering a question about potentially pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, who has virtually no other prison release option after the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of her sex trafficking conviction earlier Monday.
“I’ll take a look at it,” Trump said regarding Maxwell. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it. I don’t know anything about it, but I will speak to the DOJ.”
Maxwell is the only person criminally tried and convicted of facilitating late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s yearslong sexual abuse and exploitation of teenage girls and young women.
