Sean Combs Sentenced to Over 4 Years in Prison

Sean “Diddy” Combs, the music mogul convicted of transporting his ex-girlfriends and male escorts across state lines for days-long, drug-fueled sex marathons known as “freak-offs,” was sentenced to four years and two months in prison on Friday, marking the latest turn in his stunning fall from grace^[1].

“A substantial sentence must be given to send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability,” U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian said as he handed down the punishment. “Victims who have the courage to report their abusers and relive the excruciating trauma of that abuse by testifying in court should see that their efforts can result in meaningful accountability.”

The penalty far exceeded the 14-month sentence that the once-powerful producer requested, leaving Combs visibly stunned. But the judge scoffed at the defense proposal, saying it was “effectively” time served, considering Combs has been in custody since his arrest a little more than a year ago^[2]. He said it didn’t take into account Combs’ “aggravating factors,” including “the conduct at issue, the violence, the drugs, the coercion, and the devastation that it caused to Mr. Combs’ victims.”

Combs sat wide-eyed as the judge defended his decision and also imposed five years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine, the maximum possible. He slowly shook his head as he turned to one of his defense lawyers, Nicole Westmoreland. He then turned to his family, saying, “I’m sorry,” and “I love you,” before he was led back into custody.

In live arguments previewed in a sentencing brief^[3], Combs and his high-powered defense team cited his life story and philanthropic works as they begged for the 14 months. They claimed Combs’ actions were the product of a traumatic childhood and “ferocious” drug addiction. They also argued his conviction was an outlier under federal law because it lacked a “profit motive” or any “brothels, pimps, or minors.” Prosecutors said the motive was his own sexual gratification.

For their part, prosecutors asked for a sentence^[4] of 11 years and three months in custody, arguing an “unrepentant” Combs committed his crimes while subjecting his ex-girlfriends, Cassandra “Cassie^[5]” Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, to “violence, coercion, and abuse.” The federal probation department, considered a more neutral arbiter, recommended a sentence of 70 to 87 months in prison, or roughly six to seven years.

“A history of good works can’t wash away the record in this case, which showed that you abused the power and control that you had over the lives of women you professed to love dearly,” Judge Subramanian said as he issued his sentence after the six-hour hearing. “This was subjugation, and it drove both Ms. Ventura and Jane to thoughts of ending their lives. That is the reality of what happened.

In his own statement to the court on Friday, Combs said he was sorry. “I want to personally apologize again to Cassie Ventura for any harm or hurt that I’ve caused to her emotionally or physically,” he said after asking for a minute to compose himself, looking nervous. “I got lost in the excess. I got lost in my ego. … I’ve been humbled and broken to my core. I hate myself right now. I’ve been stripped down to nothing. I really am truly sorry for it all, no matter what they say.”

Addressing his six adult kids and his 84-year-old mother, Janice, an emotional Combs turned to the gallery where they were seated. “I failed as a father, I’m so sorry,” he said. “I failed you as a son. I’m sorry. You taught me better. You raised me better.”

Combs spoke from the defense table after his kids made their own statements at a podium, claiming their dad was a changed man who deserved a second chance. “We know he isn’t perfect, and he has made many mistakes. We aren’t here to excuse any of those mistakes. But, your honor, he is still our dad, and we still need him present in our lives,” Jessie Combs, one of the 18-year-old twin daughters Combs shared with the late model Kim Porter, said through tears.

Addressing Ventura and Jane, who were not in the courtroom, Judge Subramanian hailed the women for stepping forward. He said their testimony reached far beyond the 12 jurors. “You were speaking to the millions of women out there who have been victims, but who feel invisible and powerless and have had to suffer in silence. You gave them a voice. You stood up to power. It’s not easy. You told those women and the world that violence behind closed doors doesn’t have to stay hidden forever,” he said.

“While nothing can undo the trauma caused by Combs, the sentence imposed today recognizes the impact of the serious offenses he committed. 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,” Ventura’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said in a statement after the sentencing.

Combs, the Bad Boy Records^[6] founder who spun his music, media, and beverage businesses into a billion-dollar fortune, was convicted on July 2^[7] of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The violations of the century-old Mann Act each carried up to 10 years in federal prison. Jurors acquitted Combs, 55, of his three most serious charges: racketeering conspiracy and the alleged sex trafficking of Ventura and Jane.

At the seven-week trial, Ventura and Jane testified that they often felt they had no choice but to slather themselves in baby oil and have sex with the male escorts while Combs choreographed their movements, masturbated, and often made videos. Ventura testified that Combs regularly beat her, punched her, stomped on her face, threw her to the ground, and threatened to release her sex tapes if she didn’t do what he wanted.

“Sean Combs^[8] used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse. He groomed me into performing repeated sex acts with hired male sex workers during multi-day ‘freak offs,’ which occurred nearly weekly,” Ventura wrote in a victim impact statement^[9] submitted to the court this week. “I was forced into lingerie and heels, told exactly how to look, and plied with drugs and alcohol so he could control me like a puppet. These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces.”

Jane testified during the trial that Combs once broke down four doors^[10] trying to get her and then choked, punched, and kicked her in a rage. After that, he allegedly demanded she use ice, makeup, and a new hairstyle to camouflage her black eye and a knot forming on her head because he wanted an impromptu “hotel night,” she testified. (Jane did not submit a victim impact statement ahead of sentencing.)

“Both Ventura and Jane testified extensively about their fears and that they did not want to have sex with escorts,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing brief^[11]. They argued that even though the jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking, it was still appropriate for the judge to consider the women’s state of mind in sentencing.

“It is entirely conceivable that the jury accepted the defense’s argument that the defendant did not intend to coerce the victims, but that the victims genuinely feared the defendant,” prosecutors wrote, echoing what an alternate juror told Rolling Stone^[12] after the verdict. For that reason, the acquittals did not preclude the judge from weighing the women’s testimony they were “in fear” of some type of retaliation if they did not engage in the hotel threesomes, the prosecutors argued.

In her letter, Ventura said the abuse she endured nearly drove her to suicide. “For over a decade, Sean Combs made me feel powerless and unimportant, but my experience was real, horrific, and deserves to be considered,” she wrote. “While the jury did not seem to understand or believe that I engaged in freak offs because of the force and coercion the defendant used against me, I know that is the truth, and his sentence should reflect the reality of the evidence and my lived experience as a victim.”

The day of jury verdict, when some speculated Combs might get out on bail to await his sentence, Judge Subramanian made it clear he took the women’s testimony, and the defense concessions about Combs’ temper, seriously. He pointed to lead defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo’s closing argument as he denied Combs’ request for pre-sentencing release.

“At trial, the defense conceded defendant’s violence in personal relationships saying ‘it happened,’” Subramanian said on the bench^[13], just hours after the jury’s verdict. The judge noted that Combs was admittedly violent with Jane in June 2024, “at a time when he should have known that he needed to stay clean,” noting it was after Combs’ homes had been raided in the government’s investigation. “This type of violence, which happens behind closed doors,” he said, “is impossible to police with conditions.”

In his closing argument at trial, lead defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo explicitly told jurors that the defense wasn’t challenging the women’s claims of domestic violence. “In terms of owning, just as a matter of personal responsibility … owning the domestic violence, we own it. It happened,” Agnifilo told the panel in his final address on June 27^[14]. “If he was charged with domestic violence, we wouldn’t all be here having a trial, because he would have pled guilty — because he did that.”

In her own last words to the court on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said Combs did not deserve the benefit of the doubt at sentencing. She argued that he claimed he was sorry and a changed man after the video of him beating Ventura in 2016 was leaked, and then he assaulted Jane the next month. Judge Subramanian also noted the alleged June 2024 assault on Jane as he issued his sentence, saying he found Jane credible when she testified that Combs kicked her, held her in a chokehold, punched her, and dragged her by her hair.

“The court’s sentence has to reflect that brutal violence that the defendant perpetrated against Cassie and Jane,” he said Friday. “Admitting to violence in front of a jury as part of a trial strategy, that’s not accountability. A substantial sentence is. And now is the time that the court can and must account for that violence.”

During the trial, prosecutors put 34 witnesses on the stand over 28 days of grueling and emotional testimony. Beyond Ventura and Jane, jurors heard from former members of Combs’ inner circle who said the billionaire businessman abused them too. Celebrity stylist Deonte Nash testified that Combs allegedly choked him twice^[15], and that he watched Combs throw Ventura into the corner of a bedframe, causing a bloody gash near her eye that required stitches.

A former assistant who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” told jurors that Combs allegedly raped her^[16] in a staff bunk bed at his home and that she watched him chase Ventura, slam her to the ground, and “crack her head open.” She said Ventura did not fight back. “I’ve just seen her with her arms up,” she testified.

Mia was slated to speak at Combs’ sentencing hearing on Friday, but she changed her mind after what prosecutors called a “bullying” letter from Combs’s defense, which accused her of using a fake voice and being dishonest. Speaking from the bench, the judge agreed the “tone” of the defense letter was “inappropriate.”

Another former staffer, Capricorn Clark, testified at trial that Combs once kidnapped her at gunpoint^[17], allegedly saying he wanted to “go kill” the rapper Kid Cudi^[18] after discovering the fellow musician’s brief romantic relationship with Ventura in December 2011. Nash, Mia and Clark all submitted victim impact statements, urging Judge Subramanian to issue a substantial sentence.

During closing arguments last week, Agnifilo choked back tears and accused the government of unfairly targeting Combs in a broad overreach of power. Prosecutors, Agnifilo alleged, used Ventura’s civil sex trafficking lawsuit as a springboard to pry into Combs’ private life and slap him with criminal statutes based on his untraditional sexual preferences. He said prosecutors were trying to wrap “yellow crime scene tape” around Combs’ bedroom.

At a separate hearing last week, Combs’ defense argued a motion asking the judge to either vacate^[19] the jury’s convictions or order a new trial on the two Mann Act charges only. In a 16-page ruling Tuesday, Judge Subramanian rejected all of Combs’ arguments, including the claim that Combs was an amateur porn producer whose freak-off sessions and videos were protected by his First Amendment rights.

“At some point, illegal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected activity just by the desire to watch it,” the judge wrote. “Combs’s conduct goes far beyond that point. Evidence at trial showed that when Combs filmed, he didn’t typically give notice ahead of time or ask for consent, as a film producer would; and that he masturbated, suggesting that the purpose was his immediate sexual gratification.”

Beyond his criminal case, Combs is also facing scores of civil lawsuits alleging sexual and physical abuse. Thalia Graves, a woman suing Combs^[20] with disputed claims he raped her in a recording studio in 2001, said Friday she was satisfied with the judge’s sentence.

“I’m glad Mr. Combs has to serve four years and won’t be released right away. While we had hoped for a longer sentence, I’m thankful the judge gave him real prison time,” she said in a statement shared through her lawyer, Gloria Allred.