It has been almost a month since a Manhattan jury found Sean “Diddy” Combs not guilty on the majority of charges against him.
While he is currently awaiting sentencing on the two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution he was convicted of, the disgraced music mogul was acquitted of the more serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
The judge denied Combs’ request to remain free pending sentencing, which is scheduled for early October. But now there is chatter that he may end up getting off the hook entirely before then.
The Rumors
Citing “an administration source,” Deadline legal editor Dominic Patten exclusively reported late Tuesday that President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” pardoning Combs prior to his sentencing. Patten said he has heard from “multiple sources” that “Oval Office consideration of a Combs pardon has grown in recent days.”
The speculation comes two months after Trump entertained the idea when asked about it during a gaggle with reporters. “When you were host of The Apprentice, you mentioned once in 2012 that Diddy was a good friend of yours back then. He has since found himself in some very serious legal trouble. Would you ever consider pardoning him,” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked on May 30.
“Well, nobody’s asked… but I know people are thinking about it,” the president responded. “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 on me.”
That “whether they like me or don’t like me” was an interesting addendum from Trump given Combs’ public criticism of him throughout his first term in office. The Bad Boy Records founder endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election and told Charlamagne tha God “white men like Trump need to be banished” because their “way of thinking” is “real dangerous.”
The statement from an unnamed Trump administration official was “the White House will not comment on the existence or nonexistence of any clemency request,” and Combs’ team was similarly tight-lipped. His legal team, which Patten pointed out is led by Marc Agnifilo and Teny Gerago, had “no comment” on the pardon talk when contacted by Deadline.
Patten noted that “while a number of individuals close to Combs both personally and professionally have been active in seeking White House recourse for the Grammy winner, the defense team itself has had no significant participation in the process.”
Megyn’s Plea
Megyn has been clear that she disagrees with the mixed verdict, and she urged President Trump not to pardon Combs on Wednesday’s show:
“I don’t know whether Trump actually is [‘seriously considering’ a pardon], but I am here to urge him not to even consider it – much less to do it. It would be an absolute disaster. It would be a miscarriage of justice. He doesn’t deserve it.
First of all, just to put it in terms Trump can understand: Diddy can’t stand you, Mr. President. He was once nice to you, but he has turned on you and he doesn’t deserve a favor from you, who he worked actively to stop in 2020…
On top of that, and more importantly, he is a serial woman abuser, the likes of which we haven’t seen in modern America – at least not on the public stage in this way. He is a repeated, serial abuser. He beat those women to a pulp and didn’t even deny it. He didn’t deny it. They admitted expressly domestic abuse over and over and over again, something the judge used against him when they pled for bail… pending sentencing.
He doesn’t deserve any sort of a pardon. He got away with all of that. He is only being sentenced… on these minor crimes of basically engaging in prostitution and transporting people for the purpose of it. He got away with the most serious crimes.
So, two things. Number one, what is Trump in trouble over when it comes to [Jeffrey] Epstein? He is in trouble because he is making it look like, to the MAGA base, he is part of the elite cabal that covers for other members of the elite cabal, and they don’t like that. They elected Trump because he promised not to be one of them, but to, like, bust up those groups and work with the people against them.
This would not help. Not at all.
And there are a lot of people – like Viva Frei, who comes on the show as a legal commentator a lot – who already think the whole Diddy trial was just a show trial… There are already people thinking that there is a cover up here. Trump pardoning Diddy will create another Epstein for him. It would be a nightmare.
And last but certainly not least, the GOP is already struggling with female voters. They are not all lefties. There are young, conservative women who aren’t in love with Trump or MAGA… and this will not help. It is very clear. We all saw the videotape of him beating the hell out of Cassandra Ventura, but there was so much more testimony about the other women he repeatedly beat all the way up to when he was arrested.
He doesn’t deserve any of Trump’s mercy… It just cannot, cannot happen… I have faith in Trump. This could be Dominic Patten being spun by Diddy’s lawyers who say Trump is ‘seriously considering’ it. But I gotta believe Trump is smarter than this.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,119 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.