Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters.
Combs, 55, was also fined $500,000. Having already spent a year in custody, he is expected to serve about three more years.
His lawyers had urged the court to release him immediately, arguing that his time behind bars had already brought “remorse and sobriety.”
The hip-hop mogul was convicted in July of flying girlfriends and male sex workers across the country for drug-fueled sexual encounters spanning several years. However, he was acquitted of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, which could have carried a life sentence.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, in delivering the sentence, questioned why the misconduct continued unchecked for so long.
“Why did it happen so long?” the judge asked. “Because you had the power and the resources to keep it going, and because you weren’t caught.”
In a statement before sentencing, Combs described his past behavior as “disgusting, shameful, and sick,” apologizing to his victims, his family, and his children who were present in court. He acknowledged that his acts of domestic violence would remain “a burden [he] will carry for the rest of [his] life.”
Before the sentencing, defense attorneys played an 11-minute video highlighting Combs’ family life, career, and philanthropy. At one point, the rapper was seen weeping, his hand covering his face as his shoulders shook.
The nearly two-month trial in Manhattan featured disturbing testimony from multiple women who accused Combs of beating, threatening, sexually assaulting, and blackmailing them.
Prosecutor Christy Slavik urged the judge not to show leniency, saying, “It’s a case about a man who did horrible things to real people to satisfy his own sexual gratification. He didn’t need the money. His currency was control.”
Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution. His defense lawyer, Jason Driscoll, argued that the law had been misapplied.
Slavik also criticized Combs for allegedly booking a speaking engagement in South Florida next week, calling it “the height of hubris.” Defense attorney Xavier Donaldson countered that the planned event was intended to show how Combs could contribute positively “if the court let Mr. Combs out.”
Several of Combs’ children pleaded for leniency. His daughters Chance and D’Lila Combs broke down in tears, with D’Lila recalling the trauma of losing their mother, Kim Porter, in 2018.
“Please, your honor, please,” D’Lila said, “give our family the chance to heal together, to rebuild, to change, to move forward — not as a headline, but as human beings.”
Outside the courthouse, journalists and onlookers crowded the sidewalks, mirroring the intense media attention that followed the trial.
During testimony, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura told jurors that Combs forced her into “disgusting” sexual acts with strangers over a decade-long relationship. Jurors also watched surveillance footage of Combs dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway during one of their so-called “freak-offs.”
Another witness, identified only as “Jane,” testified that she was coerced into sex with male workers while Combs watched and filmed.
A former assistant known as “Mia”, who accused Combs of raping her in 2010, was scheduled to speak but later withdrew after defense objections. In a statement read by prosecutors, she said she wanted a sentence that reflected “the ongoing danger my abuser poses.”
Prosecutors also presented evidence of other violent incidents — including testimony from Cassie’s friend, who said Combs once dangled her from a 17th-floor balcony, and from rapper Kid Cudi, who claimed Combs broke into his home after discovering he was dating Cassie.
Defense attorney Brian Steel urged the judge to consider Combs’ history of “untreated trauma” and “ferocious drug addiction,” describing the artist’s misconduct as part of a long battle with his personal demons.
“His good outweighs his bad, by far,” Steel said.
In a letter to the judge a day before sentencing, Combs wrote, “The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn.” He vowed never to reoffend.
Cassie, however, disputed that claim in her own letter, describing him as “an abuser who will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is.”
At a hearing last week, Combs told his family he was “getting closer to going home.”
(AP)