BREAKING: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs officially asks Trump for pardon

“It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland told CNN. Combs was facing charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, which could have landed him life in prison. However, he was only found guilty of two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

With the lower charges, Combs faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, but may serve a shorter sentence for the crimes. When the defense lawyer was asked what Combs thought about his chances of getting a pardon from Trump, Westmoreland said he “is a very hopeful person and I believe that he remains hopeful.”

Prosecutors in the case argued that Combs had led a criminal enterprise with some of his closest employees, and that he and the staff used threats as well as bribery to force Casandra “Cassie” Ventura as well as a woman referred to as “Jane” into drug-fueled “freak off” sex parties.

“We didn’t need a creative story. We didn’t need to overreach. We knew that telling the truth would mean not guilty. We knew that he had not sex trafficked anyone and we knew that RICO was absurd. So we figured, hey we’ll tell the truth and that will pay off. And I believe for the most part that strategy worked,” Westmoreland said of Combs only facing the lower charges and not the sex trafficking as well as RICO charges.

When Trump was asked about the prospect of pardoning Combs earlier this week, he responded, "Well he was essentially, I guess sort of, half-innocent. I don't know what they do, he's still in jail or something. He was celebrating a victory, but I guess it wasn't as good of a victory." Combs has been denied bail as he awaits sentencing.