Trump rejects Diddy's pardon request after receiving personal letter

Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News on Jan 8, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President Donald Trump has said a pardon for Sean “Diddy” Combs is off the table after reportedly receiving a personal letter from the disgraced hip-hop mogul.

During an interview with The New York Times, the 79-year-old MAGA leader said that Diddy “asked me for a pardon through a letter,” but that he was not considering granting his request.

When probed about further details, the president teased: “Oh, would you like to see that letter?” but did not produce it. When asked for a copy or a description of the note, the White House only referred back to Trump’s comments.

The president also indicted he has no plans to pardon other high-profile inmates, such as cryptocurrency kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried, former New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez or ousted Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro, who’s currently facing federal charges of narco‑terrorism.

Trump, however, has recently issued pardons for a slew of others, including Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, ex- Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, countless allies who were charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and others who sought to overturn his loss of the 2020 election, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, his one-time personal attorney.

Trump did not tell The New York Times why he wasn’t considering clemency for Diddy, though he has previously gone back and forth when discussing a potential pardon.

In May, before Diddy’s conviction on prostitution-related charges, Trump teased the possibility of a pardon for the Bad Boy Records founder, with whom he used to rub elbows in celebrity social circles.

“I would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me,” Trump said at the time, acknowledging that his fellow New York native “used to really like me a lot” before Trump entered politics.

“I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Trump said. “I think when I ran for politics that relationship sort of busted up. He didn’t tell me that, but I read some little bit nasty stuff in the paper.”

In July, post-conviction, an administration source told Deadline the president was “seriously considering” a pardon ahead of Diddy’s sentencing in October, though no official decision was made.

On Oct. 6, three days after sentencing, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Diddy had formally requested a presidential pardon, but didn’t offer much more information on what could transpire.

The 56-year-old rapper is currently serving a 50-month sentence at New Jersey’s FCI Fort Dix. His lawyers appealed his conviction and sentence last month, attempting to depict the case as an unjust prosecution of sexual activity between consenting adults.

Almost immediately after being transferred to the low-security prison in late October, Diddy reportedly began bragging to his fellow inmates that Trump would pardon him in early 2026, according to TMZ.