Just days after one of his other attorneys said that it was her understanding that Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ team has reached out to President Donald Trump about a possible pardon for the disgraced hip-hop mogul, the Bad Boy Records boss’ lead lawyer threw cold water on the claims.
“I have nothing to do with a possible pardon,” lead attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News. “I have had conversations with nobody. I have not spoken to the president. I have not spoken to anybody who speaks to the president about Sean Combs. I have not.”
That seeming about-face came after one of Combs’ other legal reps, Nicole Westmoreland, told CNN earlier this week that, “It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” without offering any additional details on which administration officials Combs’ team has reportedly been in talks with.
In his first interview since Combs was convicted on prostitution-related charges in New York last month — he was acquitted of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have had him locked up for decades — Agnifilo told CBS that he hasn’t discussed a potential pardon with Combs either, other than to inform him that it’s being talked about in the press.
Combs was convicted of two felony counts of transportation to engage in prostitution last month at a closely watched trial at which several former girlfriends and employees described the rapper’s meticulously curated, drug-fueled “freak off” sex marathon parties at which they said Combs, 55, observed while his female companions had sex with male prostitutes.
“He says, ‘Go tell him (Mr. Trump) that I need a pardon,’” Agnofilo said Combs told him about the chatter regarding a possible get out of jail effort from Trump. “‘Go tell him I deserve a pardon.’ That’s what he said.” At press time a spokesperson for the White House had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on a potential Combs pardon. A senior Trump administration official declined to comment to CBS on what they called “speculation,” saying any decision on pardons would come directly from Trump.
While Trump has liberally wielded the pardon and commutation pen so far in his second term — including to pardon the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in 2021 after Trump’s election loss the previous November — in an interview with Newsmax last week Trump seemed on the fence about sparing his former friend Combs. “Well, he was essentially half-innocent… I was very friendly with him, I got along with him great and he seemed like a nice guy,’ Trump said. “I didn’t know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile.
The president, who prefers those who openly curry favor with and praise him, said the “not so nice” comments from Combs could be a deal-breaker and that those untoward views are definitely making it “more difficult” to consider the effort.
While Trump and Combs were often pictured together at parties and public events before the real estate mogul first became president in 2016, Diddy seemed to quickly distance himself from the Trump in 2017 when he told the Daily Beast that he didn’t “really give a f–k about Trump.” Then, after Trump lost his re-election bid to President Joe Biden in 2020, Combs told interviewer Charlamagne Tha God that “white men like Trump need to be banished… the number one priority it to get Trump out of office.”
Agnifilo, whose previous clients include “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere, said he’s currently focused on getting Combs a “good sentence” at an upcoming Oct. 3 sentencing hearing, where the once high-flying rap impresario is facing up to a maximum of two decades in prison. The lawyer said he typically speaks to Combs several times a day from the rapper’s cell at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center; a judge denied Combs bail for a fifth time this week citing the violent nature of Combs’ personal relationships.
While he awaits his fate, Agnifilo said he’s told Combs — who was reportedly eager to testify at the trial — that the broad outline of the sentencing guidelines suggest he could be sentenced to four to five years behind bars, minus credit for time served since he was first imprisoned in Sept. 2024.
In a surprising aside given the damaging, lurid testimony in the trial about Combs’ private life, Agnifilo said one of Diddy’s future goals is to perform at one of New York’s most iconic venues again. “He said to me he’s going to be back at Madison Square Garden,” Agnifilo said.
Watch Agnifilo talk a possible pardon below.
