Nicole Westmoreland, a member of the all-star defense team of Sean “Diddy” Combs, told CNN on Tuesday in an exclusive interview that the music mogul team made the Trump administration via a potential pardon after its conviction for two transport companies for prostitution last month.
“In my understanding, we spoke in terms of forgiveness and had discussions,” said Westmoreland.
Trump stated that it was unlikely that he was forgiving during a commentary interview With Newsmax last week and said: “I was very friendly with him, I got great with him and he seemed to be a nice guy. I didn't know him well. But when I ran to the office, he was very hostile.”
Trump added that this makes the forgiveness of combs “more difficult”.
West Moreland was asked this week after Trump's statements by Combs' feelings about his chances of forgiveness that Combs is “a very hopeful person, and I believe that he remains hopeful.”
When contacting CNN, an official from the White House said that he “would not comment on the existence or not existence of a request for mercy”.
Last month, a jury condemned combs for two minor charges for prostitution and spoke the hip-hop mogul about the most serious charges (called Rico) and sex trade. Combs was in prison. Instead, he will now face a maximum penalty of 20 years – according to the right analysts, however, he will probably serve a shorter prison sentence. The prosecutors did not officially say what judgment they will be pursuing – the presentation applications are only due in September – but before that he stated that it could be suspended in prison from a minimum range of 51 to 63 months (or about 4 to 5 years). In a submission last week, they stated that their estimated range could be “much higher”.
The public prosecutors accused comments of leading a criminal company that consisted of some of its closest employees, and claimed that they had applied threats, violence, forced labor, bribery and other crimes to force Casandra “Ventura and another woman,” Jane “,” Jane “,” Jane “to be” freak offs “or” Hotel Nights “or” Hotel or ” Nights “or” Hotel Nights “or” Hotel Nights “.
During the two-month court proceedings, the Combs defenders focused on a large part of their efforts on the survey and the attempt to discredit witnesses that were caused by law enforcement.
The public prosecutor presented its case over six weeks and called 34 witnesses during the Federal Criminal Procedure procedure. The defense of Combs presented an approximately 30-minute case and called zero witnesses. Combs has not said.
Westmoreland said her approach that her strategy was to “say the truth”.
“We didn't need to be creative. We didn't have to cross. We knew that it would not be guilty to say the truth. We knew that he had no one with sex trade and we knew that Rico was absurd. So we thought hey, hey, we will say the truth and that will pay off. And I think this strategy has worked.”
West Moreland added that the government's case should not have been brought primarily and that its second mistake was to “allow him to continue”.
“The government knew that Combs sex trade or Rico did not celebrate under any circumstances, and they continued to pursue,” she said. “I think the jury looked through it.”
“Mr. Combs was painted like a monster (by the public prosecutor),” Westmoreland told CNN this week as Combs would like to tell the public. “Many allegations were made before the process, and I would imagine that everyone would like to extinguish their name.”
West Moreland's role as part of the defense of Combs
In the process, West Moreland examined several witnesses, including the former “Danity Kane” singer Dawn Richard and Ventura's long -time girlfriend Bryana Bongolan, who had accused Combs to dangle them through a 17 -story balcony in 2016.
During a tense cross -life in Bongola, West Moreland presented the jury to the jury, which showed that Combs was in the Trump Hotel in New York, at the time when Bongola said that she dangled over the balcony in Los Angeles, and argued that it was not possible that combs were committed to the suspected incident.
“Do you agree that a person cannot be in two places at the same time?” West Moreland asked Bongolaner on the stand.
Outside of the presence of the jury, judge Arun Subramanian later compared Bongolaner with a “Perry Mason” moment that indicates the classic network legal drama.
“It was an honor for the judge to say that,” said Westmoreland this week. “I knew that Mr. Combs was wrongly accused. To bring out that, it is one of the things I live for.”
During her certificate, Bongolaner said that the details and the date of the alleged incident, although they are cloudy but undoubtedly occurred the incident, even if it incorrectly remembered the date.
Combs has been captured in Brooklyn's Metropolitan detention center since his arrest in Manhattan in September 2024. The judge refused him several times.
The court had asked the court to publish it for a bond against a bail due to a bond of a bond of $ 50 million. You have argued that it is not a danger to the community and is not a risk of flight. An application is still pending in which the judge is asked to completely release combs or give it a new process.
Other witnesses in the case, including Ventura, previously wrote letters to the judge and advocated that he would remain imprisoned and told the court that they would fear for their security if he was released from prison before his conviction – although a former friend, Gina Huynh, who was originally supposed to say against combs – wrote a letter in his support in his support, to publish him against him, for a quota, to publish.
As already reported, Huynh was part of the public prosecutor's case against combs, which was initially anonymously referred to as “victim 3”. But before the process started, the prosecutors alerted the court, while “victim-3” was under summons to testify.
When asked how Huynh came to write a letter to support the publication of Combs for defense, Westmoreland said no details.
“I am not quite sure who called who in relation to this, so I don't know, but obviously Gina didn't help the government, so they didn't call it. Gina supports Mr. Combs and has written a letter and a reference to this support.”
When asked whether Combs himself – who the government had previously accused, witorship manipulated – contacted Huynh to write the letter, Westmoreland replied: “absolutely not”.
Combs was physically violent with Ventura several times, and the jury was shown during the court proceedings, including the jury, including 2016 hotel monitoring material from Combs, which was defeated by Ventura, which was first published by CNN in May 2024. In his decision to refuse the combs of the combs immediately after the judge, the judge quoted Combs '' quoted in his relationships.
Combs stands before dozens of civil lawsuits who are separated from his federal criminal proceedings.
The complaints come from men, women and people who claim that they are minors at the time of alleged incidents that are above average for decades. Combs previously denied all claims. West Moreland announced on Tuesday that she found that these allegations were not part of the government's case.
“We are talking about the United States government. This is the Federal Government, right? It is not really stronger,” she said, adding later: “If there were really evidence of these allegations, we would have heard everything about it in criminal proceedings.”
The government added that “did not make any allegations”, as described in civil lawsuits. “And if they had any evidence for it, they would have … that speaks volumes for themselves,” she said.
Combs' experience in the process and his time in prison was “humble,” said Westmoreland on Tuesday.
“He appreciates the second chance. He was faced with life,” she said, in connection with him, who was acquitted about the more serious charges. “And so I think that really that the soul does something.”
“Being in prison is definitely difficult,” added his lawyer. “I think he learned a lot through this situation. And I think it would be humble for the strongest person on the planet.”
The conviction of Combs is currently set for October 3. Westmoreland confirmed that the defense prepares an appeal “as soon as possible”.