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Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump reveals if he'd grant Diddy a pardon saying the disgraced mogul was essentially 'half innocent'
Donald Trump said he would probably not pardon Sean ' Diddy ' Combs after the mogul was convicted of transportation for prostitution but not guilty on several more serious charges. The president did note, however, that Combs' acquittal on numerous sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges meant he was 'essentially, sort of, half innocent.' Trump had reportedly been 'seriously considering' a pardon for Combs as he awaits his sentencing in a Brooklyn jail. Speaking to Newsmax on Friday, 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. 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. 'But when I ran for office he was very hostile. But it was hard with human beings and we don't like to have things cloud our judgement, right? But when you knew someone and you were fine and then you run for office and he made some terrible statements, so I don't know, it makes it more difficult to do,' he said. Interviewer Rob Finnerty pushed him on it, suggesting it was 'more likely a no for Combs?' Trump replied: 'I'd say so.' As the judge prepares his punishment for the former producer over prostitution charges, a source told Deadline that Trump has been mulling the reprieve. Diddy has been acquitted on three of his most serious charges. Insiders told the outlet that the idea had advanced from 'just another Trump weave to an actionable event.' The 55-year-old mogul was found not-guilty of sex-trafficking and racketeering earlier this month, but was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs is set to receive his sentencing on October 3 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A presidential pardon has been talked of since the beginning of Combs' trial, and Trump even indicated in May that he was open to the idea. The President said, when asked on the matter in the Oval Office, that 'nobody's asked but I know people are thinking about it.' 'I know they're thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking,' he added. 'First of all, I'd look at what's happening. And I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage,' Trump continued. 'I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics he sort of, that relationship busted up from what I read. I don't know. He didn't tell me that, but I'd read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden.' 'So, I don't know. I would certainly look at the facts. if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me it wouldn't have any impact,' he concluded. Attorney John Koufos, who recently met with Trump's pardon 'tsar' Alice Marie Johnson and pardon attorney Ed Martin, told the Daily Mail elements of the case fit with Trump's push against 'overcriminalization' and 'weaponization' in charging. Trump was himself charged with a racketeering conspiracy in the Georgia election interference case, and he has long railed against what he calls weaponization of the criminal justice system. Analysts watching the Diddy case have questioned whether the government overcharged him, and Koufos wondered how the defendant could be engaging in a RICO conspiracy by themselves. 'Had he been convicted of a RICO [charge], you'd be looking at something different. The fact that he was convicted of things that it seems that he pretty obviously did probably mitigates against a grant of clemency,' he said, nothing there was 'nothing particularly sympathetic' about the defendant. The avenue for a potential pardon appears to run through Johnson and Martin, who previously served as Trump's interim top US Attorney in the District of Columbia. Trump has long championed his signing of the First Step Act, which reauthorized Second Chance legislation meant to boost successful reentry by former prisoners into the population. He has also been open to pardoning political allies, as he did when pardoning former Republican Rep. Michael Grimm and former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojavech. Blagojevich promptly called him a 'great effing guy.' But rapper 50 Cent, Curtis James, is a longtime Diddy rival who has been occasionally posting about the case online – even while saying he would urge Trump not to pardon Diddy. 50 Cent posted on Instagram: 'He said some really bad things about Trump, it's not ok. Im gonna reach out so he knows how I feel about this guy,' Vulture reported. 'Donald doesn't take well to disrespect, and doesn't forget who chooses to go against him,' he wrote in another. 'while working tirelessly to make America great again there is no room for distraction. He would consider pardoning anyone who was being mistreated not Puffy Daddy.'
The Independent
12 hours ago
- The Independent
Democrats find it hard to move on when Biden and Harris keep hogging the spotlight
Donald Trump is President of the United States. Republicans control all three branches of government. And even as Democrats are planning to regroup and contest next year's midterm elections, the two people who many of them blame for last year's dismal election outcome simply will not go away. More than half a year after they left office after a single four-year term, former president Joe Biden and former vice president Kamala Harris are continuing to remain in the spotlight and allow Republicans to highlight their failures instead of letting their party move on and find a way to regain the support that was lost during their time in office. Harris, who lost all seven of the contested swing states in last year's election, recently announced an upcoming book that will focus on the 107-day campaign she waged against Trump after Biden withdrew from the 2024 race following his dismal debate performance last June. She also revealed that she won't enter the upcoming race to succeed California Governor Gavin Newsom, who must leave office in 2027 when his second four-year term ends, leaving open the possibility that she'll enter what is expected to be a crowded primary race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Biden, whose 11th hour pardons of his family members and other political allies emboldened Trump to grant reprieves for the violent rioters who tried to prevent his 2020 loss from being certified, is still giving speeches in which he is attacking his predecessor-turned-successor, a stark contrast from how most former presidents have behaved after leaving office. At one such appearance, an address to the National Bar Association in Chicago on Thursday, he accused the Trump administration of 'doing its best to dismantle the Constitution,' giving right-wing media outlets plenty of fodder to use at a time when his party is trying to focus on the future and the current government's policy problems. And the president's son, Hunter Biden, is doing his best to stay in the headlines with a series of podcast appearances in which he casts blame for his father's exit from the race on a broad range of people — but not his father. The former Democratic ticket's refusal to fade away after a devastating electoral performance is ruffling feathers among party figures who are tasked with moving forward and figuring out how to escape from the wilderness in next year's midterms. A number of popular governors, including Illinois' JB Prizker and Kentucky's Andy Beshear, have been making the trek to early primary states with an eye towards 2028, and voters are increasingly eager to elect new faces rather than older establishment figures. Donna Bojarsky, a Democratic consultant, told The Washington Post that 'nobody' in the party is looking to go 'back to 2024' as they look for a way forward against the Republicans. 'The shadow of 2024 is long, and I think all perspectives in the mix believe we need something fresh,' she said. Another strategist Cooper Teboe, said the party's current predicament stems from a sclerosis that has taken hold on account of incumbents refusing to relinquish power to the next generation. 'The core reason the Democratic Party is in the position it is in today is because no new figures, no new ideas, have been allowed to rise up and take hold,' he said. But there is a group eager for Biden and Harris to remain part of the national conversation — Republicans. One GOP consultant who spoke to The Independent said Hunter Biden's recent profanity-laced podcast appearances and the former president's speeches are just what they need to keep his failures in the public eye as his party tries to regain the trust of voters. 'Hunter Biden is just what Democrats need more of going into the midterms,' he said, more than a bit sarcastically.
Reuters
12 hours ago
- Reuters
US Veterans Affairs agency proposes reinstating abortion exclusion
Aug 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to reinstate a full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from its medical benefits package, according to a notice posted in the Federal Register. The exclusion, which restricted coverage of abortion services for veterans, had been in place since the agency's medical benefits package was first established in 1999 until it was removed by 2022 during the administration of former President Joe Biden, according to the notice.
