What to Know
President Donald Trump is opening up about Sean “Diddy” Combs reaching out to him to ask for a pardon after he was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution during his 2025 trial.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Trump confirmed that he did, in fact, receive a letter from the rapper asking for a presidential pardon, but it sounds like it may not have gone the way that Combs was hoping it would.
Trump didn’t share many details of the letter.
While speaking with the outlet, Trump told reporters that Combs “asked me for a pardon” by reaching out to him “through a letter.” He asked the reporter if he’d like to see the letter, but never ended up showing it to them.
So far, the White House and Combs’ rep have both failed to comment on the situation, so it’s impossible to know exactly what the letter said — or if it was written by Combs himself or his legal team.
He has decided against granting Combs’ request.
The Times has reported that, during the interview, Trump made it clear that he “is not considering granting the request,” nor “several other high-profile people” who are currently serving time that the reporter asked him about.
In the past, when Trump has addressed the potential of letting Combs go free before serving out the four year sentence that was handed down to him in the summer, he didn’t seem very inclined to grant the pardon, so it’s not surprising that his tone hasn’t changed. According to ABC News, during a May press briefing, he seemed to believe he didn’t have enough information yet to make the decision.
“I haven’t seen him, I haven’t spoken to him for years,” he said. “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.”
This isn’t the first time he’s spoken about Combs’ pardon.
Back in October, Trump first confirmed that Combs asked to be pardoned when he was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office.
“A lot of people have asked me for pardons,” he said at the time. “I call him Puff Daddy, [he] has asked me for a pardon.”
It looks like Combs should probably get comfortable behind bars, because he’s going to be there for a while. It doesn’t seem like he has many avenues left to pursue his freedom if Trump is throwing up a roadblock like this.
