President Trump on Friday said he’d like to “release everything” the government has on notorious late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and signaled that he’s leaning against pardoning rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Trump’s remarks about the Epstein files come a week after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed the deceased sex offender’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, for about nine hours at a federal prison in Florida.
“I think [Blanche] probably wanted to know, you know, just to get a feeling of it, because we’d like to release everything, but we don’t want people to get hurt that shouldn’t be hurt,” Trump told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty.
“I want to release everything,” the president declared. “I just don’t want people to get hurt.”
“Todd went in and I think he just wants to make sure that innocent people aren’t hurt,” Trump added, noting that he hasn’t spoken with his deputy attorney general about Maxwell and doesn’t know if there are plans to release a transcript of the interview.
Trump also reiterated his view on a potential pardon for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking but has recently been moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas.
“I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it,” the president said. “I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it.”
The president was also asked by Finnerty about a potential pardon for Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was found guilty of two counts of prostitution earlier this month but acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
“Well, he was essentially, I guess, sort of half innocent,” Trump said of the Diddy case.
The president appeared to still be wrestling with whether he would consider clemency for his former acquaintance and revealed that he has been approached about pardoning the rapper.
“Probably – eh, you know, I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great, and seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office he was very hostile,” Trump said.
“It’s hard, you know, like, we’re human beings, and we don’t like to have things cloud our judgment, right? But when you knew someone and you were fine, and then you run for office, and he made some terrible statements – so, I don’t know, it’s more difficult,” the president continued.
“It makes it more – I’m being honest – it makes it more difficult to do.”
“They have talked to me about Sean,” Trump revealed.
When Finnerty asked if Trump was “more likely a ‘no’ for Combs,” the president responded: “I would say so.”
Combs will be sentenced in October and faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars.
