President Trump on Friday said he’d consider pardoning embattled rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who’s currently on trial in the same Manhattan courtroom where Trump was found liable for sex abuse in 2023.
“Nobody’s asked, but I know people are thinking about it,” he told a Fox News reporter in the Oval Office.
Combs faces federal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Jurors have heard testimony in recent weeks that the 55-year-old music mogul brutally abused his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura while presiding over a drug-fueled empire of sex and violence.
Trump admitted on Friday that he hasn’t been following the trial closely and hasn’t spoken to Combs in years, but said his fellow New York native “used to really like me a lot” prior to him entering the political arena.
“I think when I ran for politics that relationship sort of busted up,” Trump said. “He didn’t tell me that, but I read some little bit nasty stuff in the paper.”
The president, a convicted felon who dodged further criminal trials and possible prison time by being elected to a second term in office, said that he sympathizes for people who are mistreated by the legal system. He indicated it’s possible that would include Combs if the rapper is convicted.
“I would certainly look at the facts,” Trump told White House reporters, claiming his decisions on pardons are not influenced by whether someone likes him or not.
Combs told the New York Times in 2017 that he hadn’t spoken to Trump in a while, but had nothing against the controversial Republican.
“I’m not his enemy or nothing like that, but I’m not expecting Trump to come save my people,” Combs said at the time.
Trump this week fired off a series of pardons and commutations that led to the release of convicts who have publicly given him their support, including reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, former New York City congressman Michael Grimm and twice-jailed ex-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, among others.