Attorneys representing Sean “Diddy” Combs have told the judge overseeing his sentencing next week for the two violations of the Mann Act that the court should hand their client no more than 14 months, essentially advocating for the near-immediate release of the beleaguered rap mogul following months he’s spent since his arrest and in the aftermath of his trial inside one of the nation’s most notorious prisons.
Combs was found not guilty on July 3 of the more serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges the feds slapped him with in a 2024 indictment. The jury’s verdict came after a sensational eight-week trial in lower Manhattan that, despite his attorney’s efforts following the split verdict, ended with Combs still incarcerated at a federal lock-up in Brooklyn as he awaits sentencing. The lengthy sentencing memorandum was filed on Monday, ahead of Combs’ return to the lower Manhattan court on Oct. 3, where he stood trial and will soon learn his fate.
In Combs’ defense team’s sentencing memorandum, they state that the Grammy-winning rapper and successful businessman was met with the “full force” of the government’s “awesome power” at his summer trial and that ultimately, he mostly prevailed. They also warn against a sentence for Combs that is based outside of the jury’s ruling but based in the court’s own findings about the allegations of force or coercion of two of Combs’ girlfriends — Cassie Ventura and an anonymous woman referred to as “Jane” — who he was accused of forcing into ‘freak off” sex and drug marathons that would last up to four days, or the racketeering conspiracy prosecutors claimed he engaged in by allegedly turning his Combs Enterprises music and media empire into a criminal operation whose endgame was the aforementioned coercive sex parties. The average sentence in similar Mann Act guilty verdicts is 15 months, the high-end attorneys explain to the judge, stating that the government seeks five times that sentence for the fallen hip-hop star.
“Mr. Combs must be sentenced for what the jury convicted him of — interstate transportation of fully consenting adults with intent to engage in prostitution, “ the memorandum’s introductory document reads. “But it would be unlawful, and a perversion of justice, for the Court to sentence him as if the jury had convicted him of sex trafficking and racketeering.”
Combs’ powerhouse team of attorneys, led by Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, mentioned in their note to Judge Arun Subramanian that their client’s past charitable work and his continued sobriety while being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center for the past 13 months. The attorneys argue to the judge that having been incarcerated at the MDC merits a lighter sentence for the rapper, as he’s been subject to violence both directed at him and seen regularly; they include a news article about maggot-infested food at the lock-up, which is also currently housing Luigi Mangione, the American man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in the streets of Manhattan in 2024.
The near billionaire’s seven children, the murder of his father when he was a child, his late girlfriend Kim Porter, and the unsolved murder of rap icon Notorious B.I.G. were all brought up to the judge as the “substantial obstacles” Combs faced over the decades of his life discussed during his lengthy trial and why he was beset with anxiety and fell into substance abuse. They claimed in the memo that Combs’ therapy “can only effectively be provided outside of prison walls.”
The letter also states that both the probation office and the feds are asking Judge Subramanian to throw the book at Combs, giving him an outsized sentence “five times longer than the average sentence for Mann Act defendants with similar criminal histories.” This is all based on so-called fraud and coercion that was rejected by jurors, the attorney states in the memo. Federal probation officers assist judges in determining sentences; the federal prosecutors’ formal recommendation is still pending in Combs’ case, but they have stated that it warrants a “substantial” prison sentence.
“The prosecutors, for their part, have lost all perspective,” Combs’ lawyers state in the memo. “They advocate for numerous enhancements… and seek to sentence Mr. Combs under a different enhancement for a crime he was never charged with, which would result in a guidelines range above the statutory maximum of 20 years. This is wildly out of proportion to the conduct at issue — threesomes where fully competent adult men and women voluntarily crossed state lines and had consensual sex with each other, and the defendant made no money,” they wrote.
Combs faces a maximum of 10 years for each of the two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. His attorneys ultimately told the judge that the “only fair and just sentence after applying all the factors is a sentence of no more than 14 months’ imprisonment.” Combs’ time served will reach 14 months in November, so if this were the judge’s ruling, he would be out of the federal lockup in a matter of weeks.
Letters from dozens of family members, friends and associates were included in the sentencing memorandum, which was led by a missive from 84-year-old Janice Combs, the defendant’s mother, who raised him after his father’s murder and made headlines for her courtroom looks as she attended his federal trial daily.
Sean Combs “made some terrible mistakes in his life, which I know he recognizes,” Janice claimed in her letter to the judge, which also mentioned the death of his father and even foreshadowed her own death.
“On Dec. 21, I will be 85 years old. This separation for the past year, while Sean has been incarcerated, has been excruciatingly difficult and painful for me and his children,” she wrote. “I would like to spend the last few years of my life with my son, Sean.”
While Combs’ fate in the media frenzy trial of the year will be learned next week, he faces significant legal battles ahead. While multiple civil cases that have been filed against the mogul have since been dropped, he is still looking at dozens of civil legal actions against him, with many making strikingly similar allegations of druggings and sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by Combs over several decades. Combs has denied all charges against him.
Combs’ legal team has also reportedly appealed to President Trump for a potential pardon. In May, before Combs’ conviction, Trump said during a press conference that he “would certainly look at the facts” regarding the case but that he hadn’t “been watching it too closely.”