Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Defense Tells Appeals Court He Was Sentenced Too Harshly on Prostitution Charges Unrelated To His Violence

Defense attorneys for disgraced music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs argued on Thursday that their client’s 50-months-long sentence is unconstitutional because the district judge, who imposed the prison term, based it on conduct irrelevant to the conviction.“This is an exceptionally difficult case,” Circuit Judge William Nardini told the parties after a hearing at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which lasted almost two hours. “This is a question of first impression, not only for this court, but apparently for any federal court of appeals in the country,” he said.The key issue at stake was the question: Can a judge, when he issues a sentence, consider the defendant’s conduct related to charges of which he has been acquitted? In July, after an eight-week-long trial at the Southern District of New York, the jury acquitted Combs of the most serious charges federal prosecutors had brought against him: two counts of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Attorneys Alexandra Shapiro and Jason Driscoll leave the Sean Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial at Manhattan Federal Court on June 27, 2025. John Lamparski/Getty ImagesHowever, Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation for the purpose of prostitution. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Combs had transported male prostitutes across state lines to have sex with two of his former girlfriends — a singer and model, Cassandra Ventura, and, on separate occasions, a woman who testified under pseudonym Jane — during drug-fueled, hours-long sex marathons he called “Freak Offs.” Combs would watch the sexual sessions, according to witness testimony, often wearing a hijab-like veil over his face. Specifically, Combs was convicted of crimes that are embedded in the Mann Act, a federal law originally called the “White Slave Traffic Act” of 1910. Each count of the prostitution crime is punishable by a maximum of ten years in prison. The presiding district judge, Arun Subramanian, sentenced Combs to four years and two months, with an additional five years of supervised release and a $500,000 criminal fine. Combs, who was arrested in September 2024 and denied bail five times, had already served 10 months in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, bringing his sentence down to roughly three years. He is presently incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in New Jersey.In March, the Federal Bureau of Prisons updated Combs’ release date to April 2028, about five weeks forward from an original date in June of the same year, after he entered a rehab program. “This sentence was the highest sentence ever imposed for a Mann Act defendant, sentenced under the same base offense level and criminal history category,” defense attorney, Alexandra Shapiro argued on Thursday. Cassie Ventura and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs appear at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’ on May 4, 2015. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, fileA chart, which was submitted along with the defense’s legal briefs and shared by Combs’ media spokesperson with the Sun in an email, lists dozens of federal cases of defendants convicted of similar Mann Act charges. These sentences range from probation to 41 months, 9 months less than what Combs received. The defense claims that Judge Subramanian unjustly took into account allegations of abusive conduct by Combs – such as coercion and physical violence – related to the sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. The prosecution devoted much of the trial to lurid witness testimony about Combs’ disgraceful conduct which was related to the sex trafficking charges of which he was acquitted. “The jury did not authorize punishment for sex trafficking or conspiracy, but that’s what drove the sentence,” Ms. Shapiro said on Thursday. “Multiple justices have questioned the constitutionality of acquitted conduct sentencing,” she added. Circuit Judge Nardini pointed out that his court had “certainly” held that “sentencing courts may consider acquitted conduct at sentencing.” He asked the defense attorney if she was suggesting that his panel should “overrule precedents of other panels of this court?” This frame grab taken from hotel security camera video and aired by CNN appears to show Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in March 2016. Hotel Security Camera Video/CNN via AP, fileMs. Shapiro replied by citing recent cases from other courts that “would further point into the direction of holding” acquitted conduct sentencing as “unconstitutional.” But the judge doubled down, saying, “we typically cannot, as a panel, overrule a prior precedent of this court. Full stop. Unless there has been an intervening decision of the Supreme Court, or of this en banc court categorically doing so.” He added, “We can’t find that our precedents have been undermined by subsequent developments, and abandon them. That’s why we have the en banc process.” An en banc (on the bench) review is a rare procedure where all active judges of an appellate court—rather than the standard three-judge panel— re-hear a case to address complex matters, and generally to overturn panel decisions. In this courtroom sketch, D’Lila Combs, left center, makes a statement surrounded by family as Sean Diddy Combs, right, reacts during his sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. Elizabeth Williams via APYet the judge appeared intrigued by the points the defense was making and repeatedly directed Ms. Shapiro to engage in a Sixth Amendment argument, which ensures the defendant’s right to a fair trial. “There are various arguments one can make against acquitted conduct. One could make a Sixth Amendment argument,” Judge Nardini said. An assistant U.S. attorney, Christy Slavik, representing the government, disagreed. Ms. Salvic said the 50-month term was below what federal sentencing guidelines recommended and matched similar convictions in the 2nd Circuit. Ms. Slavic argued that the district judge had not falsely considered “acquitted conduct” but justly considered “the aggravated manner in which the defendant carried out his Mann Act offenses.” Cassie Ventura takes an oath before testifying in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. Elizabeth Williams via APCircuit Judge M. Miller Baker interrupted the prosecutor and bluntly asked, “why shouldn’t we hold you to the way you prosecuted the case?”“You went to the jury, and you said, ‘this man did all these terrible things for the purposes of RICO charges, for the purposes of sex trafficking,’ and they acquitted him,” the judge said. “And then, on the Mann Act, it was just a sideshow,” he continued.The prosecutor insisted that the conduct in question was not acquitted conduct but “admitted conduct,” such as “the extreme physical violence that took place in the context of these freak offs and hotels.” Combs admitted the physical abuse towards his ex-girlfriends, but his attorneys argued during the trial that he had not been charged with assault. All sexual encounters, the defense team said, had always been consensual. However, when Ms. Ventura, a key witness in the trial, testified, she denied that claim.Circuit Judge Nardini told both parties that his panel appreciated “the quality of the briefing and arguments.” The panel reserved its decision, as they do in all cases.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Defense Tells Appeals Court He Was Sentenced Too Harshly on Prostitution Charges Unrelated To His Violence

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