Convicted rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has asked a federal judge to impose a term of no more than 14 months behind bars when he’s sentenced next month, arguing he’s “made the most” of his year in lockup at Brooklyn’s federal jail and is ready to go home.
His sentencing submission effectively asks that he be released under time served.
“[For] decades Mr. Combs struggled with serious substance abuse issues, anger and anxiety, and other flaws that he did not properly or professionally address until his incarceration last year,” attorneys for the Harlem-born entrepreneur wrote in a sentencing submission filed late Monday.
“Mr. Combs’s near-13 months in prison has been life changing, productive, and a testament to his desire to return to his family and community and lead the best life possible. He has taken the time to achieve necessary rehabilitation from day one at the [Metropolitan Detention Center] — including getting clean of all substances.”
Combs, 55, is set to appear in court later this week, where Manhattan Federal Court Judge Arun Subramanian will consider further arguments on his motion for an acquittal or a new trial. If the judge rejects the request, he is expected to sentence Combs on October 3.
A jury on July 2 found the disgraced mogul guilty of transporting people across the country to engage in prostitution in violation of the federal Mann Act at sordid days-long sex parties he called “freak-offs.”
He was acquitted of more serious charges alleging his depraved lifestyle was facilitated by sex trafficking and a racketeering conspiracy, which could have sent him to prison for life.
Two of Combs’ exes, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, alleged during the trial that he had forced them to participate in demeaning sexual performances with sex workers hired off websites like Craigslist in dank hotel rooms across the country for a period of years.
They described suffering under a hot-headed Combs’ fists in brutal beatings.
In graphic detail, Ventura described “freak-offs” as baby oil-saturated sessions during which Combs typically masturbated in a corner and filmed while directing her to submit to often dehumanizing sex acts with male commercial sex workers. She said he had, at points, directed men to urinate in her mouth and forced her to perform while she was menstruating, on occasion using humiliating footage as blackmail against her.
The feds had argued that the women’s participation could not be viewed as consensual, in light of the well-documented threats on their lives and livelihoods they faced when they pushed back, as well as the constant surveillance Combs’ staff subjected them to.
But the jury ultimately did not find that the women were pressured into the “freak-offs” by force, fraud, or coercion, as alleged, nor that Combs’ network of staff were akin to a mob boss’s henchmen in a RICO conspiracy.
The determination came despite footage shown throughout the trial of Combs pummeling Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel lobby, an assault she said occurred after she tried to flee one of the depraved sessions, and testimony from staffers about facilitating the sex parties.
Combs’ lawyers maintained in their defense that while he was guilty of assaulting his romantic partners, he wasn’t charged with doing so, and the violence had no bearing on the offenses he was accused of.
“Mr. Combs, for his part, is the first to exclaim that these acts of domestic violence against Ms. Ventura are inexcusable. But the notion that the violence, or coercion, had a nexus to ‘freak-offs’ is not true, as the jury clearly found,” his lawyers wrote Monday.
“Critically, most of the evidence of violence is either completely unconnected to or attenuated from freak-offs and hotel nights.”
They wrote that his 12 months in custody, following his high-profile arrest in September 2024, had seen him adequately address addictions and mental health issues that contributed to his propensity for violence toward women.
“Mr. Combs will not do anything to subject himself to being in MDC again, given the conditions that he now knows he will be subject to,” his lawyers wrote. “It is time for Mr. Combs to go home to his family, so he can continue his treatment and try to make the most of the next chapter of his extraordinary life.”
While averting a worst-case outcome in his federal criminal case, Combs still faces a litany of lawsuits brought by men and women, with allegations of sexual violence dating back decades. He maintains his innocence.
