Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison — just over four years — after begging for mercy as he stood to address the court for the first time in his federal criminal trial Friday.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian handed down the sentence after a Manhattan jury returned a split verdict against the disgraced music mogul in July. Prosecutors had asked the judge to send him to prison for just over 11 years, lower than the maximum of 20.
Subramanian also ordered Combs to pay a $500,000 fine, emphasizing the need to deter Combs from committing similar crimes in the future. He has been incarcerated for around one year already.
“A history of good works can’t wash away the record of this case,” the judge said, per The Associated Press.
Combs said that it had been hard for him to keep silent during the proceedings when he had wanted to apologize, calling his past behavior “disgusting, shameful and sick.”
The 55-year-old sobbed as he turned to his family, saying, “You taught me better. You raised me better,” according to the AP. Combs said he hated himself and that he had been “stripped down to nothing” by the criminal proceedings, but could rebuild himself as a better person.
“I want your honor to know that, if given a chance, people can change. I know I’ve changed,” Combs said.
Jurors found Combs guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted him on the most serious charges: one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, which could have come with a life sentence.
Three of Combs’ seven children, Chance Combs, D’lila Combs and Jessie Combs, form a chain outside the courthouse before his sentencing.
Richard Drew via Associated Press
Prosecutors told the court during Friday’s sentencing hearing that Combs has remained so defiantly unrepentant that he booked himself speaking engagements in Miami for next week.
His attorneys have indicated they plan to file an appeal. They asserted that Combs has familial obligations and philanthropic work to occupy him outside prison, including the speaking engagements, which they characterized as educational events for formerly incarcerated individuals. Combs would immediately seek therapy, they said.
His defense team pulled out all the stops to cast their client in a more favorable light before the sentencing, at one point screening an 11-minute video to show Combs playing with his kids, donating money and sharing inspiring words with schoolchildren. Throughout the trial, Combs’ children and mother showed up to the courtroom to signal their unwavering support.
Combs’ conviction centered around violations of the federal Mann Act, which criminalizes transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution. The jury found him guilty of flying ex-girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman identified by the pseudonym “Jane” to locations around the country where he also paid male sex workers to engage in days-long, drug-fueled sex marathons dubbed “freak-offs.”
Ventura’s legal team said Friday’s sentencing in an important acknowledgment of her suffering.
“While nothing can undo the trauma caused by Combs, the sentence imposed today recognizes the impact of the serious offenses he committed,” lawyers Douglas Wigdor and Meredith Firetog said in a statement. “We are confident that with the support of her family and friends, Ms. Ventura will continue healing knowing that her bravery and fortitude have been an inspiration to so many.”
Over the course of the week-long trial, jurors heard testimony about the “freak-offs” and numerous other violent encounters witnessed by former employees, law enforcement agents and the prosecution’s star witnesses, Ventura and Jane.
Four of Combs’ seven children appear outside the Manhattan courthouse: Quincy Brown, Chance Combs, D’lila Combs and Jessie Combs.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez via Associated Press
Combs offered a personal apology to both women when he stood to address the courtroom on Friday.
Other notable people who served as witnesses during Combs’ trial include his former Dirty Money bandmate Dawn Richard and rapper Kid Cudi, who testified to multiple instances of retaliation from Combs after briefly dating his ex-girlfriend, Ventura, in 2011.
Combs’ trial stemmed from a federal investigation aided by Ventura’s bombshell civil lawsuit filed against the hip-hop maven in November 2023, which was settled within a day for $20 million, according to her testimony. The suit eventually led to Combs’ arrest, indictment and, ultimately, his conviction.
Janice Combs, mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, arrives at court Friday.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez via Associated Press
Combs was denied bail directly after the split verdict and once again in August, when Subramanian determined the mogul still failed to prove he wasn’t a flight risk or a danger to the community.
Combs’ arguments “might have traction in a case that didn’t involve evidence of violence, coercion or subjugation in connection with the acts of prostitution at issue, but the record here contains evidence of all three,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
Before Combs’ sentencing, Ventura submitted a victim impact statement to the judge, stating that if Combs walked free, she feared “his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”
“For four days in May, while nine months pregnant with my son, I testified in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life,” she wrote in her letter. “While the defense attorneys at trial suggested that my time with Combs was akin to a ‘great modern love story,’ nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing about this story is great, modern, or loving — this was a horrific decade of my life stained by abuse, violence, forced sex, and degradation.”
She added, “As much progress as I have made in recovering from his abuse, I remain very much afraid of what he is capable of and the malice he undoubtedly harbors towards me for having the bravery to tell the truth.”
Ventura’s parents submitted a letter to the judge, as well.
Combs, seen here at his “Love Album: Off The Grid” album release party in 2023, said in a letter that a new version of himself was born in prison.
Shareif Ziyadat via Getty Images
They stated: “To sentence lightly in this case that involved such vicious abuses of our daughters’ body, safety and dignity is to dismiss her very existence.”
“To sentence lightly would also send a dangerous message,” the letter continued. “A sentence that is handed down in months instead of years, sends a message that such repulsive behavior can happen without meaningful consequence.”
Conversely, Combs’ defense team submitted several dozen letters of support on his behalf, many of which were written by family members, friends and peers, asking the judge for leniency on his sentence.
In a 182-page sentencing memo, Combs’ lawyers argued that he deserved no more than 14 months in prison, which would essentially amount to time served and ensure his immediate release after spending over a year in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
“It is time for Mr. Combs to go home to his family,” his lawyers argued. “[He] must be sentenced for what the jury convicted him of — interstate transportation of fully consenting adults with intent to engage in prostitution. 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 RICO, or to increase his sentence based on the Court’s own findings about force or coercion or racketeering.”
Combs’ camp was reportedly in talks with the Trump administration to seek a presidential pardon for his conviction. However, one of Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, seemed to chalk those claims up to “rumor mill stuff,” as he previously told Variety, “I am not involved in that in the least.”
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Combs continues to face civil lawsuits related to sexual assault and abuse allegations — including a suit filed as recently as last week by a witness in his criminal trial.
Lydia O’Connor contributed reporting.
