Trump says he'll look into Maxwell pardon, says Diddy asked for one

U.S. president Donald Trump said on Oct. 6 that he "would have to take a look" at a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

Trump also said Sean "Diddy" Combs had requested a pardon.

Combs was sentenced on Oct. 3 to four years and two months in prison over his conviction on prostitution-related charges.

Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.

Trump and Epstein were friends, but had a falling out.

Declined to rule out a pardon

The president's comments about wanting to speak to the Department of Justice (DOJ) came on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell's bid to overturn her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction.

Trump was asked in the Oval Office whether he would set Maxwell free through a pardon.

His exchange was with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

He repeatedly declined to rule out a pardon.

“But she was convicted of child sex trafficking,” Collins said.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m going to have to take a look at it,” Trump responded.

“I’d have to ask DOJ. I didn’t know they rejected it. I didn’t know she was even asking for it, frankly.”

Asked why she might deserve clemency, Trump responded that “a lot of people have asked me for pardons”.

The others included Combs.

"I call him 'Puff Daddy' has asked me for a pardon," Trump said.

Background

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.

Maxwell met with a top DOJ official for two days in July 2025 for an interview to discuss the Epstein case amid bipartisan pressure on the Trump administration to release new information about it.

She was moved to a minimum-security prison for women after the meeting.

The DOJ subsequently released transcripts and audio files from its interview with Maxwell and turned over thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein.

Maxwell said during the interview that she “never witnessed” Trump in an “inappropriate setting”.

She also said she does not believe Epstein died by suicide, which fanned the flames among some factions, who have been suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the financier's death behind bars.

The Epstein case has dogged Trump and the DOJ for months, creating upset among the Make America Great Again political base, which has been unusually critical of the administration for not releasing more information about Epstein's crimes and alleged associates, Reuters reported.

Top photos via Department of Justice & PBS NewsHour YouTube