By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday left the door open to a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
Trump also said that Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was sentenced on Friday to more than four years in prison over his conviction on prostitution-related charges, had requested a pardon.
On the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell’s bid to overturn her conviction, Trump, when asked whether he would set Maxwell free himself through a pardon, said he would speak to the Department of Justice.
“I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look,” he said. “I will speak to the DOJ.”
The Epstein case has dogged Trump and his Justice Department for months, creating upset among Trump’s 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.
Trump and Epstein were friends but had a falling out. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Issuing a pardon to Maxwell would carry political risk for Trump. Both his supporters and his Democratic opponents have demanded the administration release files from the Justice Department’s Epstein probe.
The president said a lot of people asked him for pardons and referenced Combs. “I call him ‘Puff Daddy’ has asked me for a pardon,” Trump said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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