While Diddy Gets Oval Office Audience, SBF's Pardon App Collects Dust on DOJ Server 🎩

President Donald Trump signed pardons on Friday for six individuals convicted of Clean Air Act violations, while the formal pardon application from former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried, filed June 8, remains pending at the Justice Department. Trump's Truth Social post announcing the signings described the recipients as "persecuted by the Biden Administration" and stated, "I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!" The pardons covered emissions-related offenses, a category in which Trump previously pardoned Wyoming mechanic Troy Lake and addressed through a June 29 executive order directing the EPA to deprioritize tampering enforcement.

Clemency discussions involving Sean "Diddy" Combs have reached the Oval Office, according to CBS News. Combs is serving just over four years at Fort Dix following his 2025 conviction on two prostitution-related transportation counts; jurors acquitted him on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. Trump told the Times in January that Combs had written a letter seeking a pardon, but indicated at the time he was not considering it. Combs was not among the names on Friday's list. In May, reports indicated Trump was weighing up to 250 pardons to coincide with America's 250th birthday.

Bankman-Fried's situation contrasts sharply with that of Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder whom Trump pardoned in full on October 21, 2025. Zhao had served four months related to an anti-money laundering compliance failure, while Binance paid $4.3 billion to settle. Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence after prosecutors placed the FTX customer shortfall at $8 billion; a federal appeals court rejected his retrial bid in June. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ruben Gallego introduced a resolution opposing any pardon for him.

The FTX Recovery Trust has returned roughly $10 billion to creditors, with smaller claims recovering up to 120% of 2022 values, though that figure has not translated into movement on the application. In the same January interview in which he discussed the Combs letter, Trump said he had no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried, and no public signal has emerged since.