Mike Tyson has claimed Donald Trump once promised him a pardon for his rape conviction.
During an appearance alongside Governor Chris Christie at the NJ Reentry Corporation Conference at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, Tyson asked Christie to give Trump a call about the pardon he says he was promised.
“Man, governor, I wish you could talk to Donald Trump, ’cause I haven’t talked to him in many years,” Tyson said. “Tell him he said he was going to give me my pardon so I am waiting for my pardon. He said it out of his mouth so I’m waiting.”
A spokesperson for Tyson denied that he was actually saying “pardon,” telling NJ.com that he was instead saying the word “partner.”
“When I was on the phone with Mike he said he meant it in a joking way back when I partnered with Trump in the eighties during his boxing time,” said the spokesperson, Joann Mignano.
But Christie clearly interpreted what Tyson said to mean that he was asking for a pardon, jokingly responding that he’d add it to his “list” for the next time he was on the phone with the president. Tellingly, Tyson didn’t correct him.
“I didn’t know what I was going to talk to him about next. Now I got it, got the pardon to work on,” Christie said.
Tyson, who was convicted on rape charges in 1992, appeared on the panel alongside Christie and the former Democratic governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevey.
“We sit up here as imperfect people who have had challenges in our lives of all different kinds,” Christie said. “But I also think we’re people who can contribute a great deal to making society better.”
Watch the video below:
Mike Tyson and Gov. Chris Christie shared an awkward moment in New Jersey https://t.co/kOyyVzBlHK pic.twitter.com/SgAt4s3uZA
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) April 14, 2017