Trump talks Diddy and Ghislaine Maxwell pardons as he bafflingly tells reporter, ‘I haven’t heard the name in so long’

President Donald Trump said Monday he would consider pardoning convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who conspired with the president’s late friend, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, to traffic and abuse underage girls in multiple states.

He also said hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was sentenced last week to more than four years in federal prison on federal prostitution charges, had asked him for clemency.

Speaking in the Oval Office during an event about approving a new mining road in Alaska, Trump was asked whether he would consider granting clemency to Maxwell, the British socialite accused of sex trafficking after Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s best friend, hanged himself in a New York holding cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on similar charges.

“You know, I haven’t heard of him in a very long time. I can tell you, I have to take a look at him. I have to take a look at him,” Trump said.

He later said he “needed to talk to the DOJ” and emphasized that he knew “nothing” about the matter, even though the case had dominated headlines for months due to a bipartisan effort to force the release of case files from the Justice Department’s attempt to prosecute Epstein.

“I’ll take a look… a lot of people have asked me for forgiveness,” he added.

Trump also said Combs, whom he calls “Puff Daddy,” a nickname the rapper has not used since he was acquitted on weapons and bribery charges a quarter-century ago, also asked for his pardon.

The president’s comments about Maxwell came just hours after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal; His lawyers filed the motion on the grounds that the non-prosecution agreement prosecutors had previously reached with Epstein in Florida should have applied to him as a co-conspirator with the late pedophile and that he should never have been tried.

While the Justice Department urged the justices to reject that argument, Attorney General D. John Sauer argued that the U.S. attorney overseeing that agreement needed to get permission for the terms to apply outside that territory.

Maxwell was indicted in New York federal court in 2020 on charges related to Epstein’s decades-long scheme to recruit young women and girls (some as young as 14) and then sexually abuse them.

According to prosecutors, from 1994 to 2004, Maxwell and Epstein worked together to recruit young girls and persuade them to travel to Epstein’s properties. During a month-long trial in 2021Survivors testified in federal court in Manhattan that Maxwell groomed them, took their passports and sexually assaulted them.

President Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell has come under renewed scrutiny after the Justice Department sought to end the investigations despite the president’s promise to release the so-called “Epstein files,” which critics argue could reveal a broader conspiracy involving powerful figures.

Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said: Independent In a statement, he said his legal team was “deeply disappointed” by the court’s refusal to hear his case.

“But this fight is not over. Serious legal and factual issues remain and we will continue to pursue every avenue possible to ensure justice is served,” he added.

Maxwell, now 63, is not scheduled to be released from prison until 2040. The best chance for her early release is a presidential pardon, but legal experts warn that public statements suggesting a pardon is even remotely on the table could encourage Maxwell to do whatever she can to secure it.

Her lawyer, Markus, had previously said Maxwell would welcome the move, but had not formally requested a pardon from Trump.

Alex Woodward contributed reporting from New York