A recent report claimed President Donald Trump could pardon Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs as soon as this week. However, the White House has slammed those claims.
On October 20th, TMZ reported that Trump was “vacillating” on a commutation, despite staff “urging” the president against it. They added that their source claimed, “Trump will do what he wants.”
Shortly after the report was published, a spokesperson for the White House told the Daily Mail that the story was false.
“There is zero truth to the TMZ report, which we would’ve gladly explained had they reached out before running their fake news,” he said. “The president, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons and commutations.”
Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison on October 3rd after being found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Trump confirmed that Combs had asked for a pardon while speaking in the Oval Office earlier this month. “A lot of people have asked me for pardons,” he said. “I call him Puff Daddy; he has asked me for a pardon.”
The president previously criticised Combs over comments made when he was running for president. “I was very friendly with him, I got along with him great, and he seemed like a nice guy,” he said. “I didn’t know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”
He added that while “we don’t like to have things cloud our judgment,” Combs’ “terrible statements” made a pardon “more difficult to do.”
Nevertheless, a source close to the Trump administration claimed a presidential pardon was being “seriously considered,” going from “just another Trump weave to an actionable event.”
