President Donald Trump has revealed that he has no plans to pardon rapper Diddy, despite receiving a handwritten letter from the embattled music mogul asking for mercy.
Speaking in an interview with The New York Times this week, Trump confirmed that Diddy personally reached out to him from prison, hoping for a presidential pardon. However, the president made it clear that the request is not under consideration.
“He asked me for a pardon,” Trump said. “Through a letter.”
Details of the handwritten note have not been made public, as White House officials declined to release a copy and referred all questions back to Trump’s comments.
Diddy, (Sean Combs), is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being convicted on federal prostitution-related charges. He has been behind bars since September 2024 and is being held at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey. The rapper is also in the process of appealing both his conviction and sentence.
This isn’t the first time Trump has spoken about the pardon request. Back in October, he mentioned during a conversation with reporters at the White House that Diddy had already asked for clemency.
“A lot of people have asked me for pardons,” Trump said at the time. “I call him Puff Daddy. He asked me for a pardon.”
Trump has previously admitted that he once had a friendly relationship with Diddy, but said things changed when the rapper publicly criticised him during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I got along with him great,” Trump said in an earlier interview with Newsmax. “He seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t know him well. But when I ran for office, he became very hostile.”
According to Trump, those past comments have made the idea of a pardon harder to consider.
“We’re human beings,” he said. “When someone was fine with you and then makes terrible statements about you, it makes it more difficult. I’m being honest.”
For now, it appears Diddy’s hopes for a presidential pardon are off the table as he continues his legal battle from behind bars.
