Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers argue his 50-month sentence is unfair and based on conduct for which he was acquitted
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NEED TO KNOW
- Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers argue his 50-month sentence is unfair and based on conduct for which he was acquitted
- Prosecutors said Combs abused women and transported sex workers for personal gratification, calling defense arguments “meritless”
- The Bad Boy Records founder Combs is scheduled for release from federal prison in April 2028
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers are now arguing his appeal of his prostitution-related conviction.
At the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Thursday, April 9, defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro urged the three-judge panel to reduce Combs’ 50-month sentence, saying it was necessary “to ensure that not guilty really means not guilty,” ABC News reported.
In court filings, Combs' attorneys argued that the trial judge “refused to enforce the jury’s verdict” by considering conduct for which Combs had been acquitted when deciding his sentence, CNN reported.
Combs’ lawyers have also argued in court filings that videos showing sexual encounters known as “freak-offs,” which were central to the prosecution's case, amounted to “amateur pornography” protected by the First Amendment, according to reports from the Associated Press, CNN and ABC News.
They said that the law’s definition of “prostitution” should apply only when a paying customer has sex with the person being paid, CNN reported.
Prosecutors have rejected the claims as “meritless,” saying Combs “hired and transported commercial sex workers to have sex with his girlfriends for his own sexual gratification, sometimes participating directly himself,” per the court filings cited by CNN.
They also argued that the judge properly considered the treatment of the women when determining Combs’ sentence. “According to Combs, the district court should have closed its eyes to how he carried out his Mann Act offenses and abused his victims — violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them and plying them with drugs,” prosecutors wrote in court filings, PEOPLE previously reported.
The Bad Boy Records founder, 56, is serving his sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, a federal facility located on a military base about 40 miles outside Philadelphia.
He was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution, but was acquitted of more serious charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which could have carried a life sentence.
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Combs’ lawyers formally appealed the conviction last December, arguing the encounters were consensual and the trial judge imposed an overly harsh sentence. Federal prosecutors countered in February, calling him a repeat offender who used threats and violence, according to court documents previously obtained by PEOPLE.
No decision was announced following Thursday’s roughly two-hour hearing, according to reports.
Combs is now scheduled for release on April 15, 2028.
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