Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrives at court for sentencing
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has arrived in court in New York for his sentencing after being convicted in July of flying people around the country for sexual encounters.
A jury acquitted the hip-hop mogul, 55, of more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have put him away for life.
On the eve of his sentencing, Combs wrote to US District Judge Arun Subramanian asking for mercy and proclaiming himself to be “reborn” after realising that he was “broken to my core”.
Combs will be sentenced under the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sex acts.
Prosecutors urged the judge to reject leniency, saying witnesses fear for their safety if he is freed.
Prosecutors say he should spend more than 11 years in prison for his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs’ lawyers want him freed now, saying the long sentence sought by prosecutors is “wildly out of proportion” to the crime.
As he has throughout the case, Combs entered the packed courtroom through a side door, escorted by deputy US marshals.
Combs was transported to the court on Friday morning from the Metropolitan Detention Centre, the Brooklyn federal jail where he has been held since his arrest in September 2024.
Given permission by the judge to wear non-jail clothes, Combs arrived wearing a light-coloured sweater over a button-down shirt and dark-coloured trousers.
He hugged his lawyers and greeted his family and supporters as he walked to the defence table.
Combs smiled briefly and waved to his family in the gallery before sitting down, putting on a pair of glasses and reading through papers from a large accordion-style folder.
“Good morning and good morning to you, Mr Combs,” the judge said.
“Good morning, your honour,” Combs replied.
The judge confirmed that Combs’ children and a minister will be able to speak in support of the hip-hop impresario. Judge Subramanian is considering whether he will also hear from some other people the defence proposed. All of them have written letters to the court.
The defence wants the court to hear from two doctors who have evaluated and cared for Combs while he has been in jail.
A former personal assistant who testified at Combs’ trial that he raped her in 2010 is no longer planning to speak at his sentencing.
Prosecutors told the judge that a former assistant, who gave evidence under the pseudonym “Mia,” has changed her mind about giving a statement in person. She already submitted a lengthy personal statement urging the judge to hold Combs “fully accountable”.
“This letter has been excruciating to write,” her victim impact statement said. She wrote that the little girl she once was “is gone. She was buried alive by an abuser, trapped in a world of terror, abuse, humiliation, and coercive control”.
Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik said Mia changed her mind about speaking in court after Combs’ lawyers submitted a letter objecting to Mia’s appearance.
The letter, the prosecutor said, “can only be described as bullying”.
The judge agreed, concluding that “the tone of the defence’s letter was inappropriate” and advising Combs’ lawyers not to do it again.
Judge Subramanian is declining to add certain “enhancements” to the sentencing guidelines that probation officials have used to calculate Combs’ possible sentencing range.
The judge denied the prosecution’s request to add factors that could increase the hip-hop mogul’s potential sentence, such as for causing serious bodily injury, vulnerable victims and obstruction of justice.
Nevertheless, the judge said, he will weigh all relevant conduct – including Combs’ violence and threats – as he decides on a sentence.
He left in place an “enhancement” for coercion, overruling the defence’s objection. In doing so, he cited Combs’ threats to his long-time former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura to publicly release videos of their so-called “freak-offs”.
Probation officials concluded that the guidelines range for Combs’ sentence is around five years and 10 months to seven years and three months.
Adding the enhancements that prosecutors wanted would have increased the guidelines range to nine years to 11 years and three months in prison.
The judge’s actual sentencing decision is many hours away. But in the course of legal arguments, the judge gave a glimpse of his view of Combs’ stance toward the case.
“In general, the narrative that he and his attorneys have put forth – that this case involves nothing more than adults paying for time, not sex – is flatly inconsistent with both reality” and an acceptance of responsibility, the judge said.
In this first phase of the sentencing, the judge is going through complex legal reasoning in response to objections that both sides have raised to the pre-sentencing report.
Judge Subramanian said that while Combs was acquitted of certain charges, the verdict does not absolve him of underlying conduct, such as violence and coercion. Nor does it mean that such conduct is irrelevant to sentencing, the judge said.
While Combs continues to fight his conviction on two prostitution-related charges, the judge said the evidence “plainly established in whole or in part the defendant’s participation in the convicted conduct”.
It was Combs who organised sex parties and hired male escorts, and it was his money that paid for them, the judge said.
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