One lawyer confirms there have been talks with the Trump administration about a pardon for Sean “Diddy” Combs. But the lead attorney says he knows nothing about it. So what gives?
Cracks have started to surface among Diddy’s all-star legal team after two attorneys made conflicting statements in network TV interviews.
On Tuesday, Aug. 5, Nicole Westmoreland spoke with CNN and said there had been talks with the administration about securing the mogul’s release.
“My understanding is that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” she said.
Westmoreland, who is one of eight attorneys who helped get Combs acquitted of federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in his criminal trial, did not elaborate on who was involved in the talks.
Still, she said Combs “remains hopeful” about the future as he awaits sentencing on Oct. 3, following his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.
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The mogul’s high-priced legal team also includes Teny Geragos, Brian Steel, Alexandra Shapiro, Jason Driscoll, Anna Maria Estevao, Xavier R. Donaldson, and lead attorney Marc Agnifilo.
On Aug. 6, CBS aired a sit-down interview with Agnifilo, who seemingly contradicted Westmoreland, or at the very least distanced himself from the pardon conversation.
“I have nothing to do with a possible pardon,” he stated.
“I have had conversations with nobody,” the attorney continued. “I have not spoken to the president. I have not spoken to anybody who speaks to the president about Sean Combs.”
Agnifilo said he speaks with Combs “several” times a day, and noted that the mogul makes suggestions on possible strategies, but it ends there.
“He says, ‘Go tell him [Mr. Trump] that I need a pardon,'” Agnifilo explained. “‘Go tell him I deserve a pardon.’ That’s what he said.”
The attorney said the only thing he’s focused on right now is the producer and rapper’s Oct. 3 sentencing, for his convictions on the prostitution counts alleging he violated the Mann Act — which makes it a federal crime to transport someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.
A federal jury in Manhattan found Combs not guilty on the most serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges on July 2, but convicted him on the two lesser counts involving his ex-girlfriends Cassie Ventura and a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe.”
On Monday, Aug. 4, Judge Arun Subramanian rejected the mogul’s request to be released on $50 million bond as he awaits sentencing, citing his history of violence and the possibility that he might flee the country.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is now president of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers, believes Subramanian made the wrong call.
“I think Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs should be released pending sentencing,” Rahmani told Urban Hollywood 411 on Wednesday.
While the attorney believes Combs is a “terrible human being,” he said prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He has been acquitted outright of the most serious crimes,” the attorney said. “I think the just result, now that the jury has spoken, is for him to be released and to be sentenced to time served or something close to it.”
When reminded about the letters the mogul’s alleged victims wrote to the court expressing fear, and recent filings by prosecutors saying Combs poses a “threat” to the community, Rahmani countered Combs was not convicted of a “serious crime.”
“It’s the payment of money for a sex act, and that happens every single day in this country,” he stated. “It is not a serious crime that he has been convicted of. So for the prosecution to try to keep him in custody and to sentence him to a multi-year prison sentence, strikes me as sour grapes.”
Combs has been held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in September 2024.
He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for each prostitution count.
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