U.S. President Donald Trump has revealed that music mogul Sean Combs wrote a letter to him seeking a pardon, but he is not considering granting the request.
In an interview, Trump told The New York Times on Wednesday that Diddy’s letter, among several others from high-profile people, has come through, but might receive consideration.
Those include Nicolás Maduro, the ousted leader of Venezuela, facing charges for narco-terrorism and conspiring to import cocaine, Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur convicted in 2023 of stealing billions of dollars from customers, as well as Robert Menendez, the former senator from New Jersey who was found guilty in 2024 of trading his political influence for gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
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Trump was also asked about the possibility of pardoning former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd during a 2020 arrest, as that case ignited worldwide demonstrations for racial justice. Trump said: “I haven’t been asked about it.”
Through public appeals and behind-the-scenes outreach involving the president’s allies, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Bankman-Fried, Mr. Chauvin, or their supporters have sought clemency from Mr. Trump.
In the final month of 2025, the U.S. President pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was at the center of what the authorities had described as “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
However, asked about Maduro’s chances of receiving a pardon by The Times, Trump said, “No, I don’t see that.” Maduro has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Last year, 56-year-old Diddy was found guilty of prostitution-related charges and was sentenced to a little more than four years behind bars.
Comb’s lawyers appealed the conviction and sentence last month and deemed the case an unjust prosecution of sex between consenting adults while arguing that the judge had not been fair to their client.
For now, the details of Mr. Combs’s letter to Trump remain unclear, and what know is that the U.S. president told the Times reporters that Mr. Combs had “asked me for a pardon” and that the request came “through a letter.”
Asked when the letter came through, Trump said, “Oh, would you like to see that letter?”
He chose not to provide much detail from the letter and said he was not considering the pardon request.
The White House also referred to Trump’s comments when asked for a copy of the letter or a description of its contents, The Times confirmed.
Diddy’s lawyers are yet to comment on the situation.
The existence of the letter has not been reported in the past, despite the fact that Trump had stated in other comments that Mr. Combs asked for clemency. The U.S President nonetheless made it clear he was not inclined to grant it.
Before Trump ran for president, he had a social relationship with Diddy, but suggested that their relationship broke down after Mr. Combs criticized his first presidency.
“I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great, and seemed like a nice guy,” Mr. Trump told the cable network Newsmax last year, adding, “I didn’t know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”
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President Trump made it clear that Diddy’s criticism makes a pardon “more difficult to do.”
