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 tremendous of US$500,000, the utmost attainable, for his conviction on federal prostitution-related offences. He may also be beneath 5 years’ supervised launch after his time in jail is served.
In his ruling, Choose Arun Subramanian mentioned “a historical past of fine works can’t wash away the document on this case, which exhibits that you just abused the ability and management over the lives of girls who you professed to like.”
“You had been no john,” he added. “You had been greater than that, even when your forex was satisfying your sexual needs as an alternative of cash.”
Subramanian mentioned a considerable sentence is required “to ship a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence in opposition to girls 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 choose to condemn him to now not than 14 months, which might have resulted in his near-immediate launch, as he has already served practically 13 months in a Brooklyn jail.
Throughout the sentencing listening to, Combs’ six youngsters crowded across the podium, imploring the choose to provide their father a second probability.
Quincy Brown, the 34-year-old son of Kim Porter, who was adopted by Combs, shared that his father “has realized a lesson.” The household had seen him evolve, Brown mentioned, and “he’s utterly remodeled.”
“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, instructed the choose that whereas her father was been incarcerated, she noticed adjustments in him that “really feel actual and lasting.”
“After we discuss he speaks with a transparent thoughts and sense of objective that I didn’t all the time hear earlier than,” she added.
“I understand how laborious it was to face up right here and inform me these issues, however it’s essential for me to listen to,” Subramanian mentioned to them.
After an emotional sequence of statements from the kids, Combs’ authorized staff 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 associate Porter, who died in 2018.
Whereas addressing the choose, Combs thanked Subramanian for “giving me the prospect to lastly communicate 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 with 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 harm that I’ve induced 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 elevate my youngsters and be there for my mom,” Combs mentioned. “I misplaced all my companies, I misplaced my profession, I completely destroyed my fame.”
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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 12 months there have been so many occasions that I wished to surrender. There have been some days I assumed I’d be higher off useless. The previous me died in jail and a brand new model of me was reborn. Jail will change you or kill you — I select to dwell,” he mentioned.
Combs admitted that he had “nobody responsible for my present actuality and state of affairs 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 harm that I induced, however I perceive that the mere phrases ‘I’m sorry’ won’t ever be ok 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 resort 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 useless flawed for placing my fingers on the girl that I beloved. I’m sorry for that and all the time might be.”
Relatively 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 probability.”
The costs: What led to Combs’ sentencing?
Combs has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest. He confronted federal prices 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 had been making an attempt to criminalize Combs’ swinger life-style 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 Unhealthy Boy Data founder was acquitted in July of the highest prices — 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 beneath a pseudonym. Each girls mentioned he was typically violent towards them. Ventura mentioned he compelled her into a whole bunch of sexual encounters with paid male intercourse employees, whereas Jane recounted quite a few “resort 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 staff makes an attempt to safe his freedom
Combs was denied bail after a jury convicted him of federal prostitution-related offences in July.
Choose 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 choose to launch him on a $50-million bond as he awaited sentencing.
Agnifilo mentioned circumstances on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn had been “harmful,” and mentioned defendants convicted previously of prostitution-related prices that had been much like Combs’ had been sometimes launched earlier than their sentencing.
He argued that the court docket ought to launch Combs “on affordable circumstances” upfront of sentencing. The lawyer claimed that Combs “just isn’t a threat of flight neither is he a hazard to the neighborhood or to any particular individuals.”
Agnifilo mentioned that if Combs was launched on circumstances, he “won’t be violent to anybody.”
Combs’ lawyer additionally added a proposed bail bundle for the rapper with circumstances together with “a $50-million bond secured by Mr. Combs’ residence in Miami,” which might even be co-signed by three “financially accountable individuals.”
The choose denied bail for Combs a second time.
His attorneys revealed they even reached out to U.S. President Donald Trump in search of a pardon following his conviction.
A supply near Combs’ authorized staff 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 staff, instructed CNN in an unique interview that the music mogul’s staff had reached out to Trump for a possible pardon.
In early August, Trump instructed 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 effectively. However after I ran for workplace, he was very hostile,” Trump mentioned.
When Trump was requested if granting Combs clemency was extra doubtless a “no,” he mentioned, “I’d say so.”
Final month, attorneys for Combs urged a choose to condemn him to not more than 14 months in jail for his conviction. In a written submission, Combs’ authorized staff mentioned he had already been punished sufficient.
They mentioned their consumer is a “modified man,” who had realized that his overuse of medication 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 choose rejecting his attorneys’ argument that he was an novice 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 is perhaps sufficient to get rid of Combs’s problem,” Subramanian wrote within the 16-page opinion and order.
“Criminality can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected exercise.”
He referred to as Combs’ filming “incidental,” pointing to trial proof that confirmed he didn’t sometimes give discover or ask for consent for filming, as a movie producer would.
— With information from The Related Press
