Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs attorneys have approached the Trump administration seeking a presidential pardon.
The disgraced music mogul’s lawyer Nicole Westmoreland told CNN on Tuesday that discussions were underway about a potential pardon.
‘It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,’ she said.
Westmoreland added Diddy ‘is a very hopeful person and I believe that he remains hopeful’ that Trump will grant the pardon.
It comes just days after Trump insisted ‘nobody’s asked’ about the pardon, even as rumors swirled that he was ‘seriously considering’ it.
In the Oval Office, Trump said: ‘Nobody’s asked but I know people are thinking about it.’
‘I know they’re thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking,’ he added.
Earlier, he had vowed to ‘look at what’s happening’ if he were asked to do so. ‘I haven’t seen him, I haven’t spoken to him in years,’ he said.
‘He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics he sort of, that relationship busted up from what I read. I don’t know. He didn’t tell me that, but I’d read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden.’
‘So, I don’t know. I 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.’
Trump said earlier this week he would ‘probably not’ pardon Diddy after he was convicted of transportation for prostitution.
The president did note, however, that Combs’ acquittal on numerous sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges meant he was ‘essentially, sort of, half innocent.’
Speaking to Newsmax on Friday, Trump ultimately said it was ‘more likely a no’ but noted the interesting situation the rapper had found himself in.
‘Well he was essentially, sort of, half-innocent. I don’t know what they do that he’s still in jail or something. He was celebrating a victory but I guess it wasn’t as good a victory,’ he said.
Trump has held a long grudge against New York prosecutors after they pursued investigations into him during his time in office and in the years after he left office.
During his first term, he fired Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan whose office pursued multiple investigations into Trump’s conduct.
Berman had arrested and prosecuted Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime legal fixer, and began an inquiry into Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.
As the judge prepares his punishment for the former producer over prostitution charges, a source told Deadline that Trump has been mulling the reprieve.
Diddy has been acquitted on three of his most serious charges.
Insiders told the outlet that the idea had advanced from ‘just another Trump weave to an actionable event’.
Combs is set to be sentenced on October 3 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
