US President Donald Trump said he will "consider the facts" in the case of rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is accused of racketeering, human trafficking and sexual assault, before considering a pardon. He said this during a press conference in the Oval Office, reports UNN with reference to CNN.
Answering a question about a possible pardon for Combs, Trump said he had not been following the trial closely, but would "consider the facts" in the rapper's case.
"I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years," Trump said of Combs, whom he called a good friend on his show "The Apprentice."
"I used to like him very much, but I guess when I ran for politics, that relationship kind of broke down," Trump said.
But he later added, "If I think someone has been treated badly, whether I like them or not, it won't have any effect on me."
The P.Diddy case
The trial of American rapper and producer Sean Combs (P.Diddy) began on May 5, 2025 in New York. The charges include human trafficking for sexual exploitation, violence and harassment.
Combs denies all charges.
On May 30, the BBC reported that Diddy's former assistant told a New York court that he had repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
The woman, who worked with Combs for eight years, testified anonymously under the pseudonym "Mia."
Mia said she started working for Combs in 2009, when she was about 20.
The working environment she entered was, in her words, "toxic" and "chaotic."
Combs, she said, was often violent towards her.
On one occasion, he threw a plate of spaghetti at her, which nearly hit her in the head.
The woman also told the court that she witnessed the rapper's aggressive behavior towards his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
She claims she saw Combs attack Cassie and cut her eyebrow.
Cassie Ventura's testimony against "Diddy"
Sean "Diddy" Combs' ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, told the court that the rapper controlled her life and forced her into "humiliating" sexual acts.
She is the main witness for the prosecution. The woman spoke about the alleged physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of the musician during so-called "freak-offs", or sexual encounters that the couple had with male escorts.
Cassandra Ventura told the court that Sean Combs introduced her to so-called "freak-offs" during the first year of their relationship. These were sexual events during which they hired an escort male or stripper to have sex with Ventura while Combs watched.
The singer admitted to the court that at first she decided to try such meetings to make Combs "happy". But she added that they humiliated her and sometimes lasted three to four days.
"I felt pretty terrible," she told the court, wiping away tears. "It made me feel worthless."
Cassandra Ventura told the court that she never wanted to have sex with anyone other than Sean Combs, and claimed that she took a lot of drugs - marijuana, ecstasy and ketamine - to help herself enjoy it - for Combs, as well as to "dissociate".