US President Donald Trump is expected to pardon several people convicted of emissions and clean air-related offenses and is also weighing additional clemency requests, including for disgraced hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and other prominent figures, CBS News reported Friday, citing sources.
Trump was scheduled to meet with advisers Friday afternoon to review pardon recommendations, though final decisions remained pending, the report said. Friday's list was reportedly expected to be exclusively related to Clean Air Act violations.
Trump has been broadly scornful of laws to protect the environment and has sought to cut them in the name of economic growth. Under his presidency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pushed a large shift in how the government weighs the costs of reducing air pollution against benefits to human health.
Lobbying for pardons has intensified in recent weeks, but neither Combs nor other high-profile cases were reportedly expected to appear on the pardons team's recommendation list.
Combs is serving a federal prison sentence of just over four years at Fort Dix, New Jersey, after being convicted last year on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted of the more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.
As of Friday morning, Trump had not finalized how many people would receive clemency and was privately considering requests, including Combs', according to the report.
"President Trump is the ultimate decider on any clemency related actions," a White House official told CBS News in a statement.
The New York Times reported in January that Combs had written to Trump seeking a pardon, though the president said at the time he was not considering the request.
Among others seeking clemency is Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel of The Fugees, who is serving a 14-year federal prison sentence after his conviction for conspiring with Malaysian financier Jho Low in an illegal foreign lobbying scheme.
Low, who is accused by US authorities of embezzling $4.5 billion from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, is also seeking a pardon, according to the report. Trump had not decided whether to grant clemency to Michel or Low, the report said.
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