Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to only over 4 years in jail, three months after he was discovered responsible of two counts of prostitution.
Combs was given 50 months in jail and a wonderful of US$500,000, the utmost potential, for his conviction on federal prostitution-related offences. He will even be below 5 years’ supervised launch after his time in jail is served.
In his ruling, Decide Arun Subramanian mentioned “a historical past of excellent works can’t wash away the report on this case, which exhibits that you simply abused the ability and management over the lives of girls who you professed to like.”
“You have been no john,” he added. “You have been greater than that, even when your foreign money was satisfying your sexual needs as a substitute of cash.”
Subramanian mentioned a considerable sentence is required “to ship a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence towards ladies is met with actual accountability.”
Federal prosecutors had requested that Combs, 55, be sentenced to at the least 11 years and three months in jail. Comb’s attorneys urged the decide to condemn him to now not than 14 months, which might have resulted in his near-immediate launch, as he has already served almost 13 months in a Brooklyn jail.
Through the sentencing listening to, Combs’ six youngsters crowded across the podium, imploring the decide to provide their father a second likelihood.
Quincy Brown, the 34-year-old son of Kim Porter, who was adopted by Combs, shared that his father “has discovered a lesson.” The household had seen him evolve, Brown mentioned, and “he’s utterly reworked.”
“My father is my superhero. Seeing him damaged down and stripped of all the things is one thing I’ll always remember,” mentioned one other son, Justin Combs, 31.
Probability Combs, his eldest daughter, informed the decide that whereas her father was been incarcerated, she noticed modifications in him that “really feel actual and lasting.”
“Once we discuss he speaks with a transparent thoughts and sense of goal that I didn’t at all times hear earlier than,” she added.
“I understand how arduous it was to face up right here and inform me these issues, however it’s necessary for me to listen to,” Subramanian mentioned to them.
After an emotional sequence of statements from the youngsters, Combs’ authorized group offered an 11-minute tribute video that featured clips showcasing the rapper’s philanthropic efforts, motivational speeches, residence movies and scenes of him mourning his late accomplice Porter, who died in 2018.
Whereas addressing the decide, Combs thanked Subramanian for “giving me the prospect to lastly converse up for myself,” as the previous rapper didn’t testify throughout his trial.
“One of many hardest issues that I’ve needed to deal with is having to be quiet. Not having the ability to categorical how sorry I’m for my actions,” Combs mentioned in his assertion to the court docket.
“I need to personally apologize once more to Cassie Ventura for any hurt or damage that I’ve triggered her – emotionally or bodily,” he added.
Combs referred to as his conduct “disgusting, shameful and sick.”
“Due to my selections, I misplaced my freedom, I misplaced the chance to successfully increase my youngsters and be there for my mom,” Combs mentioned. “I misplaced all my companies, I misplaced my profession, I completely destroyed my status.”
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Combs mentioned that he’s “misplaced my self-respect” and he has been “humbled and damaged to my core.”
“I hate myself proper now. I acquired stripped right down to nothing,” Combs mentioned. “I need to apologize to my seven youngsters. Y’all deserve higher.”
The sentencing marks the conclusion of the disgraced hip-hop mogul’s New York trial, which started on Might 5.
In a letter to Subramanian forward of his sentencing, Combs proclaimed himself to be a brand new man after realizing that he was “damaged to my core.”
“Over the previous yr there have been so many occasions that I wished to surrender. There have been some days I believed I might be higher off lifeless. The outdated me died in jail and a brand new model of me was reborn. Jail will change you or kill you — I select to stay,” he mentioned.
Combs admitted that he had “nobody guilty for my present actuality and scenario however myself.”
“In my life, I’ve made many errors, however I’m now not operating from them,” he wrote. “I’m so sorry for the damage that I triggered, however I perceive that the mere phrases ‘I’m sorry’ won’t ever be adequate as these phrases alone can not erase the ache from the previous.”
He went on to apologize for hitting, kicking and dragging his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura at a Los Angeles lodge in 2016 — an assault captured on safety digital camera.
“The scene and pictures of me assaulting Cassie play again and again in my head day by day,” Combs wrote. “I actually misplaced my thoughts. I used to be lifeless flawed for placing my palms on the girl that I beloved. I’m sorry for that and at all times shall be.”
Slightly than make an instance out of him with a prolonged sentence, Combs requested Subramanian to “make me an instance of what an individual can do if afforded a second likelihood.”
The costs: What led to Combs’ sentencing?
Combs has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest. He confronted federal costs of coercing girlfriends into having drug-fuelled intercourse marathons with male intercourse employees whereas he watched and filmed them.
Combs had pleaded not responsible. His attorneys argued that prosecutors have been attempting to criminalize Combs’ swinger way of life and that, if something, his conduct amounted to home violence, not federal felonies.
In July, Combs was discovered responsible of two counts of prostitution, together with the transportation of Ventura to have interaction in prostitution. He was additionally discovered responsible of the transportation of former girlfriend “Jane” for a similar functions.
The Dangerous Boy Data founder was acquitted in July of the highest costs — racketeering and intercourse trafficking. The defence received three acquittals after he was discovered not responsible of operating a legal enterprise and two counts of intercourse trafficking.
In all, 34 witnesses testified, headlined by Combs’ former girlfriends Ventura and “Jane,” who testified below a pseudonym. Each ladies mentioned he was usually violent towards them. Ventura mentioned he compelled her into tons of of sexual encounters with paid male intercourse employees, whereas Jane recounted quite a few “lodge nights.”
After the decision was learn, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo requested the court docket to launch Combs from federal detention now that he’s now not charged with intercourse trafficking.
Combs’ authorized group makes an attempt to safe his freedom
Combs was denied bail after a jury convicted him of federal prostitution-related offences in July.
Decide Subramanian famous Combs’ violent historical past: “At trial, the defence conceded the defendant’s violence in his private relationships, saying it occurred with Cassie and Jane.”
Agnifilo requested that Combs be launched on conditional bail to his residence in Miami, and supplied a US$1-million bond. Prosecutor Maurene Comey countered, saying to Subramanian that Combs ought to stay in jail till sentencing.
Later that very same month, attorneys for Combs requested a decide to launch him on a $50-million bond as he awaited sentencing.
Agnifilo mentioned situations on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn have been “harmful,” and mentioned defendants convicted previously of prostitution-related costs that have been much like Combs’ have been usually launched earlier than their sentencing.
He argued that the court docket ought to launch Combs “on affordable situations” prematurely of sentencing. The lawyer claimed that Combs “will not be a danger of flight neither is he a hazard to the group or to any particular folks.”
Agnifilo mentioned that if Combs was launched on situations, he “won’t be violent to anybody.”
Combs’ lawyer additionally added a proposed bail bundle for the rapper with situations together with “a $50-million bond secured by Mr. Combs’ residence in Miami,” which might even be co-signed by three “financially accountable folks.”
The decide denied bail for Combs a second time.
His attorneys revealed they even reached out to U.S. President Donald Trump searching for a pardon following his conviction.
A supply near Combs’ authorized group confirmed to NBC Information that that they had been involved with the Trump administration.
This got here after Nicole Westmoreland, a member of Combs’ defence group, informed CNN in an unique interview that the music mogul’s group had reached out to Trump for a possible pardon.
In early August, Trump informed Newsmax that Combs’ attorneys have “talked to me about Sean” however mentioned he was unlikely to pardon the music mogul.
“I used to be very pleasant with him, I acquired together with him nice and he appeared like a pleasant man. I didn’t know him properly. However after I ran for workplace, he was very hostile,” Trump mentioned.
When Trump was requested if granting Combs clemency was extra seemingly a “no,” he mentioned, “I might say so.”
Final month, attorneys for Combs urged a decide to condemn him to not more than 14 months in jail for his conviction. In a written submission, Combs’ authorized group mentioned he had already been punished sufficient.
They mentioned their shopper is a “modified man,” who had realized that his overuse of medicine had contributed to violent acts he participated in.
What’s subsequent for Combs?
Combs was denied acquittal and a brand new trial on Tuesday, the decide rejecting his attorneys’ argument that he was an beginner pornographer — not partaking in prostitution — and that the responsible verdict violates his First Modification rights.
“The federal government proved its case many occasions over. That by itself could be sufficient to get rid of Combs’s problem,” Subramanian wrote within the 16-page opinion and order.
“Criminal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected exercise.”
He referred to as Combs’ filming “incidental,” pointing to trial proof that confirmed he didn’t usually give discover or ask for consent for filming, as a movie producer would.
— With information from The Related Press
