Donald Trump has confirmed that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asked the President for a pardon, one that Trump doesn’t plan to grant.
As per the New York Times, in an interview on January 7th, Trump shared that the disgraced music mogul “asked me for a pardon […] through a letter.”
Trump was then asked when the letter was sent, and replied, “Oh, would you like to see that letter?” However, he failed to produce the letter but did reveal that he was not considering the pardon request.
Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and was sentenced to 50 months in jail in October 2025. He was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking.
It was reported in July that the president was considering Combs’ request for pardon, though the existence of the letter had not then been confirmed.
In May 2025, Trump commented on his relationship with the star, whom he knew personally before Trump ran for his first presidency. He shared, “I haven’t seen him, I haven’t spoken to him for years. I don’t know. I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated it wouldn’t matter whether they like me or don’t.”
Trump since weighed in on the high-profile trial, sharing with Newsmax, “Well, he was essentially, I guess, sort of half-innocent. I don’t know what they do, still in jail or something. But he was celebrating a victory, but I guess it wasn’t as good of a victory.”
Elsewhere, last month, Combs’ lawyers appealed his conviction and sentence. They argued that the case was an unjust prosecution of sex between consenting adults and argued that the judge had been unfair.
A four-part Netflix series about the rapper and producer, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was made available on Netflix on December 2nd. It contained never-before-seen materials and exclusive interviews with those formerly in Combs’ orbit to chart his very public rise and fall from grace.
