According to a White House insider, former President Donald Trump is contemplating commuting Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ prison sentence as early as this week.
The 55-year-old music mogul is currently serving a 50-month sentence for two charges related to the transportation for the purposes of prostitution.
A source revealed to TMZ that Trump is uncertain about whether to proceed with commuting Combs’ sentence following his recent commutation of former Congressman George Santos.
Despite White House staff advising against the decision, the insider noted that “Trump ultimately acts according to his own judgment.”
Combs, who had faced the possibility of a longer sentence, was acquitted of more severe charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, which could lead to his release in the near future.
Trump has previously indicated hesitance in granting a pardon but remarked that Combs’ acquittal on several sex trafficking and racketeering charges implied he was “in a sense, somewhat innocent.”
Speaking to Newsmax in August, Trump ultimately said it was ‘more likely a no’ but noted the interesting situation the rapper had found himself in.
‘Well he was essentially, sort of, half-innocent. I don’t know what they do that he’s still in jail or something. He was celebrating a victory but I guess it wasn’t as good a victory,’ he said.
Donald Trump is considering commuting Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ prison sentence as soon as this week, a White House insider claimed
Trump is ‘vacillating’ on whether or not to follow up his weekend commutation of former Congressman George Santos with Combs
The president then detailed his past relationship with Combs, as both are native New Yorkers who became famous.
‘I was very friendly with him, get along with him great, seemed like a nice guy, didn’t know him well,’ he said.
That started to take a turn when Trump moved toward politics. While Combs was largely agnostic in the 2016 race, he endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and said if Trump won there would be a race war.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.
The news comes the same day Combs attorneys signaled that they plan to appeal his conviction.
The rapper and mogul has already been credited with serving 13 months of his sentence.
But In a two-page notice for the Federal District Court of New York that was filed by his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, she signaled their plan to appeal, but they didn’t lay out the legal rationale behind the appeal, according to documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
However, in previous filings, the rapper’s legal team claimed that his conviction shouldn’t stand because the two prostitution charges did not apply to his conduct, as they are allegedly relics of the Mann Act that are now rarely used.
Trump has previously suggested he would probably not pardon him but added that Combs’ acquittal on numerous sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges meant he was ‘essentially, sort of, half innocent’
The president has spoken of his past relationship with Combs, as both are native New Yorkers who became famous
More detailed filings laying out Diddy’s reasoning behind his appeal are likely to be submitted in upcoming weeks.
Diddy’s appeal would initially be heard by a three-judge panel from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Diddy was still listed as being jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center as of Monday afternoon, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Federal prison consultant Sam Mangel told the Daily Mail that defendants typically wait 45 to 60 days to be transferred to a federal prison to start their sentence.
However, because of the federal shut down, Diddy could be waiting in Brooklyn MDC longer than usual, Mangel said.
On October 3, Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced Diddy to 50 months in prison after his conviction on the two prostitution charges, but he has been credited with the year he already spent in jail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of and during his trial.
His legal team had argued for a far more lenient sentence of just 14 months in prison.
When the 12 months he had already spent in jail were subtracted from the total, Diddy would have only served an additional two months in prison under his preferred sentencing terms.
By contrast, prosecutor’s had requested a sentence of at least 11 years and three months in prison.
