A White House official publicly ridiculed gossip website TMZ’s report that President Trump was considering commuting Sean Combs’ 50 month prison sentence.
Even after the White House denied Monday’s report, TMZ stood by their story and insisted that the President would make a decision on Combs’ commutation this week.
According to the New York Post, the White House accused TMZ of fabricating “their fake news” for clicks and views.
“There is zero truth to the TMZ report, which we would’ve gladly explained had they reached out before running their fake news,” the administration said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The President, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons and commutations.”
TMZ claimed that it had heard from sources that “a high-ranking White House official” said that Trump “is considering commuting Diddy’s sentence as early as this week.”
Combs’s legal team contacted the White House hours after a Manhattan judge sentenced the music mogul to 50 months in a federal prison for human trafficking on Oct. 3.
His lawyers also reached out to Trump in the months before his sentencing. But Trump previously said he was not happy with Combs for not backing him ahead of the 2020 presidential elections.
Combs, a registered Democrat, supported Joe Biden instead.
“White men like Trump need to be banished,” Combs said in a video in 2020. “We are in a war of love versus hate. The number one priority is to get Trump out of office.”
In May and July, Trump said he would “seriously consider” pardoning Combs if he was convicted on October 3.
But on October 6, Trump told reporters, “I have a lot of people who have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy has asked me.”
Trump previously pardoned rappers Kodak Black, Lil Wayne and NBA YoungBoy.
