Famed defense attorney Mark Geragos told TMZ that pardoning Diddy would be a "great" move for President Donald Trump on Monday. He spoke with the outlet about the idea while at LAX. Deadline previously reported that Trump is “seriously considering" the move.
Geragos told TMZ that he thinks Trump will go forward with the pardon and says it would be a "great decision." His daughter, Teny, served on the Bad Boy mogul's defense team for his criminal trial.
Trump originally floated the idea of pardoning Diddy back in May, saying at the time that he would "certainly look at the facts," as caught by NBC News. More recently, however, he was more pessimistic about the idea. “I was very friendly with him, I got along with him great, and he seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile," Trump said during an interview on Newsmax, last week.
Trump did note that he interpreted the ruling to mean that Diddy was "sort of half innocent." While the jury found him not guilty of the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, they still convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
When Is Diddy's Sentencing?
Diddy will be returning to the courtroom for a sentencing hearing on October 3rd. While he faces up to 20 years in prison, the prosecution has only recommended a 4-year sentence.
Ahead of the sentencing hearing, Diddy filed a request for a retrial. "Mr. Combs, at most, paid to engage in voyeurism as part of a 'swingers' lifestyle. That does not constitute 'prostitution' under a properly limited definition of the statutory term," Diddy's legal team wrote in that motion, as caught by USA Today. "The proof at trial showed that he typically hired the services of male escorts or dancers advertised openly through lawful businesses, that the men were paid for their time, and that they enjoyed the activities and had friendships with Ms. Ventura and Jane and were not merely traveling to have sex for money."
