Sean “Diddy” Combs has officially been transferred to another penitentiary to start his prison sentence. As it stands, the 55-year-old music star is set to serve his sentence of four years (or about 50 months). However, there’s also still a question of whether he could receive a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump. POTUS has shared mixed thoughts on the matter thus far, though some legal experts still think it’s possible. In fact, one of R. Kelly’s lawyers is now weighing in on how Combs could still receive clemency.
Nicole Blank Becker became Robert “R” Kelly’s lawyer in 2019, at which time the singer was facing various sexual abuse-related allegations. In 2021 and 2022, Kelly was convicted on multiple charges, and he’s currently serving a 31-year sentence. While her client didn’t receive a pardon, Becker believes it’s “certainly not out of the realm” of possibility for Diddy. As she explained to Fox News Digital, though, there needs to be more to the situation than meets the eye:
I think that if there's a bigger explanation of why the things happened that P. Diddy is accused of doing and the president and or his people are made aware of all of that, that would certainly assist in having the right people look at the right things.
Sean Combs was handed a mixed verdict at the conclusion of his trial earlier this year and, as a result, he was acquitted of sex-trafficking and racketeering but convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The prostitution-bsaed offenses were initiated under the jurisdiction of the Mann Act. (That human trafficking-related law also played into R. Kelly’s conviction.) At his sentencing hearing in October, Diddy apologized for his actions, though Becker also says he’ll need to show true remorse if he wants a pardon:
They're not trying to pardon people who are going to go out there and just tear up … the federal government and everything like that.
Per Nicole Blank Becker (who previously weighed in on Diddy’s trial), something that must also be considered is the person or group of people who would actually make the pardon request. It’s Becker’s belief that not just anyone can make the request, and she shared her take on what said individuals are like:
And trust me, those people are not talking to the media and those people aren't letting people know that that's what they're doing. This is something that is very rarely given, but often asked for, but not in the manner in which it's being portrayed in the media.
Of course, there are two sides to this situation. The other one involves President Trump, who would have to have a true willingness to consider and extend the pardon. Whether or not he’d actually be open to doing so is hard to say at this point. During a press conference this past June, Trump said he wasn’t following Diddy’s case that closely and that he’d have to examine it more. (Around that time, 50 Cent said he’d try to bar such a pardon.) In August, during an interview, Trump acknowledged he was “friendly” with Diddy years ago, given their positions in New York’s high society. However, he said he was “more likely” to say no to a pardon.
The president claimed in October that Diddy did request a pardon, though no further action has seemingly been taken on that front. In the meantime, Sean Combs remains incarcerated at FCI Fort Dix, which is where he’s intended to spend his incarceration. While it’s unclear if he’ll receive a pardon, Combs did just notch a legal victory in that his appeal was expedited.
