Trump Addresses Diddy Pardon Question

When Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Donald Trump about a potential pardon for Sean Combs on May 30, in true Trump fashion, he proceeded to make the question about himself.

According to The Huffington Post, Trump replied to the question as he typically does, by launching into a rambling explanation that doesn’t immediately answer the question which he was asked.

“I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Trump told Doocy. “He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, 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.”

Trump continued, “You know, it’s different. You become a much different person when you run for politics and you do what’s right. I could do other things and I’m sure he’d like me, and I’m sure other people would like me, but it wouldn’t be as good for our country. It’s not a popularity contest, 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 on me.”

According to the Department of Justice, Combs is currently facing charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

As it relates to the eight-week trial, NBC News reports that the testimony of Combs’ former employees may be unveiling the criminal enterprise required to secure a conviction under the federal racketeering conspiracy charge.

As Mark Chutkow, a defense attorney who handed racketeering cases as a federal prosecutor in Detroit told the outlet, Combs’ former global brand director Capricorn Clark’s “testimony is certainly helpful in painting a sinister image of Combs, of his manipulation and his coercion, his control and his violence, which will be beneficial to the prosecution down the line in terms of gaining the jury’s sympathies that this guy was up to no good and needs to be put away, or at least held accountable.”

He continued, “You do have these elements of extortion and coercion and fear and intimidation also at play, which you see in gangs and you see in the Mafia and other criminal organizations, and so I think that you don’t necessarily have to have co-conspirators and accomplices that are completely voluntary in their commitment to the organization.”

Although racketeering charges are somewhat complex, attorney Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor, indicated that prosecutors often only have to prove the charge with one witness or circumstantial evidence.

“I don’t know if they’ve met all of the elements of racketeering yet, but prosecutors are showing that Diddy used employees from his business and organization to carry out criminal activities,” Maimin told the outlet. “They’re linking the crimes to his business.”

According to Rolling Stone, the lengthy trial, which is approaching its halfway point, is expected to conclude by the Fourth of July. If found guilty, the 55-year-old Combs faces the prospect of spending anywhere from 15 years to life behind bars, but if he were to receive a pardon, his federal sentence would cease to exist.

Per their previous reporting, several of Combs’ associates are getting closer to Trump administration officials in hopes of getting clemency pleas to Trump. Per an anonymous source who is close to these preliminary discussions, Combs would do anything, even appeal to Trump, to avoid going to prison.

“He’s willing to do anything to get out of jail,” a source who has known Combs for a decade told Rolling Stone in May. “He’s always been this way. He’s always going to do what he has to do to get out of a situation.”

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