Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs could get 20-year sentence despite mixed verdict
For years, he was one of the most influential figures in hip-hop. He broke ground as a music executive and made his mark in fashion and reality television. Now, Sean “Diddy” Combs faces as much as 20 years in prison after his conviction Wednesday, July 2, on federal charges involving interstate prostitution. Combs was denied bond while he awaits sentencing.
Combs denied bond
Judge Arun Subramanian denied Combs’ attorneys’ request for $1 million bond. He said the applicable law didn’t allow for Combs’ release yet. The judge also noted Combs’ violent history in his decision, saying Combs’ legal team did not provide evidence that the performer was not a danger to “any person or the community.”
“At trial, the defense conceded the defendant’s violence in his personal relationships,” Subramanian said.
Jury returns split verdict
A jury in New York acquitted Combs of the most serious charges brought by federal prosecutors: sex trafficking and racketeering. But jurors convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors said he coerced two girlfriends – the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman identified in court only as “Jane” – into unwanted sex with male prostitutes.
Although the verdicts were mixed, the convictions threatened to bring an abrupt end to a career that has spanned three decades. If he receives the maximum sentence, Combs could be in prison until he is 75 years old.
Prosecutors praised the guilty verdicts.
“Sex crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing reality is that sex crimes are all too present in many aspects of society,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton of New York said in a statement. “Victims endure gut-wrenching physical and mental abuse, leading to lasting trauma. New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice.”
Lurid testimony
The verdicts followed an eight-week trial that featured often-lurid testimony about drug-fueled “freak-offs,” “wild king nights,” emotional manipulation and physical threats intended to force women to have sex with hired men arranged by Combs.
Prosecutors portrayed Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise, alleging he and an inner circle of employees committed numerous crimes over a decade. They said the offenses included drug distribution, forced labor, arson, kidnapping, bribery, interstate prostitution and drug trafficking. In closing arguments, prosecutor Christy Slavik said Combs “used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted.”
Defense lawyers acknowledged Combs had used drugs and engaged in domestic violence. However, attorney Marc Agnifilo said the government’s allegations were “badly exaggerated,” and he said the alleged victims willingly took part in the sex acts described in their testimony.
“You want to call it swingers, you want to call it threesomes,” Agnifilo said. “Whatever you want to call it, that is what it is – that’s what the evidence shows.”
Advocates for victims of sexual abuse criticized the jury’s decision to acquit Combs on the most serious charges, which could have carried a life sentence.
Arisha Hatch, the interim executive director of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, told The New York Times the verdict was “a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers like Diddy.” The verdict, she said, was “an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”
‘I’ll be home soon’
After the verdict was returned, defense lawyers asked Judge Arun Subramanian to release Combs on $1 million bond, saying he was not a flight risk – in part because jurors didn’t convict him on the most serious charges. Combs has been in custody since his arrest in September 2024.
“The jury unambiguously rejected the government’s allegations that Mr. Combs ran a years-long criminal enterprise or engaged in sex trafficking – the core of the government’s case,” the defense team wrote to the judge. They added that Combs’ “sentencing exposure is substantially lower than when the government initially sought detention.”
Prosecutors countered that Combs engaged in criminal activity even when he knew he was the subject of a federal investigation. “He continues to be a danger to others and is either unable or unwilling to follow the law,” they wrote.
A lawyer for Ventura, who testified that Combs physically abused her, told the judge that she believes Combs “is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community.” During the trial, Ventura testified that Combs had paid her $20 million to settle a lawsuit over what she described as years of abuse.
The judge has not scheduled Combs’ sentencing. A former federal prosecutor in New York, Mitchell Epner, told The Associated Press that while the maximum sentence is 20 years, the judge is more likely to impose a term “measured in months, not years.”
However, Epner said, because the prostitution convictions involved coercion and violence, prosecutors are likely to argue that Combs deserves a lengthy sentence.
In the courtroom, the AP reported, Combs expressed confidence as he spoke to family members after the verdicts.
“I’ll be home soon,” he said.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
