Sean "Diddy" Combs Sentenced to Four Years in Prison

Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to four years, or 50 months, in prison for his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution on Friday. 

The disgraced music mogul has already served 12 months in jail, which counts toward his sentence. Je is expected to file an appeal immediately.

While delivering his sentencing decision at the end of the hearing, Judge Arun Subramanian emphasized that the court must consider Combs’ personal history and characteristics when determining how long he must remain behind bars. 

While Combs was convicted only under the Mann Act — he was acquitted of serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy — the judge made it clear that Combs’ violence would be a factor in the sentencing. 

He began by highlighting Combs’ career achievements and his impact on the Black community, calling his philanthropic work “Commendable.” 

The judge then noted he must also consider Combs’ conduct, as detailed in a rigorous eight-week criminal trial, in which 34 witnesses accused the Bad Boy Records founder of violent crimes and sexual abuse. 

“We saw the video of your savage beating of Ms. Ventura,” Subramanian said, referring to the 2016 hotel surveillance footage. 

He pointed out that Combs committed “serious offenses that irreparably harmed two women.”

After delivering the sentence of 50 months in prison, plus a $500,000 fine and five years of supervised release, Subramanian took a few moments to acknowledge the victims of Combs’ case, calling them “strong women” who told “horrific stories.” 

“We heard you,” the judge said of Ventura and other witnesses. “I am proud of you.” 

He thanked the victims for coming forward and demonstrating that “violence behind closed doors doesn’t have to stay hidden.” He added, “Even if you were a victim, you don’t always have to be.”

Speaking directly to the defendant, the judge said Combs will not be able to “wash away” his crimes, and that his past conduct “will forever be associated” with him. But, he said, “You are going to get through this. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Quoting his own children, sister and mother in their letters to the judge, Subramanian told Combs that he can devote his future to supporting victims of domestic violence. 

“The same power you used to hurt women, you can use to help them,” he said. “I’m counting on you to make the most of your second chance.”

Immediately before the sentencing decision, Combs pleaded with Judge Subramanian for “mercy” in a tearful speech. 

He spoke more during the hearing than throughout his entire eight-week criminal trial. 

Combs thanked the judge and offered personal apologies to Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, “Jane” and the other alleged victims of the case. 

He said one of the “hardest things” about this past year has been “having to be quiet” and “not being able to express how sorry I am for my actions.” 

Addressing his “disgusting, despicable” 2016 attack on Ventura, Combs apologized to all victims of domestic violence, saying, “I know it triggered a lot of people around the world.”

“My actions were disgusting, shameful and sick,” Combs said. “I was sick. Sick from the drugs. … I needed help, but I didn’t get the help.” 

Combs said he makes “no excuses” for his actions because “I knew better, my mother raised me better.”

“I got lost in excess. I got lost in my ego,” Combs added, noting that his decisions led him to lose his freedom, his ability to parent his children and, “most of all … my self-respect.” “I’ve been humbled, broken to my core,” Combs said. “I hate myself right now.”

As he turned around to face his six adult children standing in the gallery, Combs began crying and said, “Y’all deserved better.” 

He apologized to his mother, Janice Combs, saying he “failed” her as her only son. 

Combs begged the judge for a light sentence so that he could be reunited with his family. “I’ll never put my hands on another person again,” he vowed.

After the July verdict of his criminal trial, Combs’ lawyers filed multiple motions for acquittal and requested that he be sentenced to 14 months, which, given his time already served, would release him by the end of the year. 

Federal prosecutors initially argued that Combs deserved at least four to five years in prison. 

Earlier this week, they amended their request to more than 11 years. 

Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act, and each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

On Friday morning in court, prosecutor Christy Slavik began with opening remarks, emphasizing that Combs “has not admitted his guilt” or “accepted responsibility” and slamming the defense’s primary argument as “flatly inconsistent with reality.” 

She underlined the government’s recommendation of at least 135 months in prison, comparing it to other Mann Act cases. “His respect for the law is just lip service,” she said of Combs, revealing that the disgraced music mogul apparently booked a speaking engagement in Miami for next week. “That is the height of hubris,” Slavik said. 

Combs’ attorney Xavier Donaldson later described the commitment as a “teaching engagement” without pay.

Defense attorney Jason Driscoll rebutted Slavik’s argument, and Nicole Westmoreland started crying during her lengthy remarks about how Combs is an “inspiration” and Black business pioneer. 

She told the judge about Combs’ behavior at the Metropolitan Detention Center over the last 12 months, saying he taught other inmates business skills in a six-week course. 

“Mr. Combs can reach so many more on the outside than he can on the inside,” Westmoreland said, pleading for a lenient sentence.

All six of Combs’ grown children spoke at the sentencing hearing in defense of their father, underlining that “he has completely transformed” since his 2024 arrest. “He’s my hero … he’s still my superhero,” said Christian Combs, who began his remarks by talking about how much he resembles his father. Sniffling, he added, “Please give my family grace.”

Combs’ daughters Jessie, Chance and D’Lila, each broke down in tears in the courtroom as they described growing up without their mom, Kim Porter, who died in 2018. “We need our father,” Chance said, weeping. “We cannot watch our baby sister grow up fatherless,” she added, referring to the two-year-old Love. As he listened to his children, Combs looked visibly distressed, clutching his stomach while seated next to his attorneys.

Judge Subramanian thanked the Combs kids for speaking. “I know how hard it was to stand up here,” he said, adding that it was really “important” for him to hear from them. 

Following their remarks, an 11-minute video highlighting Combs’ relationship with his family was shown to the court.

Speaking next was Brian Steel, who said Combs’ violence was the result of “untreated trauma” and a “ferocious drug addiction.” 

Steel said Combs underwent a medical procedure in 2000 and was prescribed painkillers. Since that day until 2024, “Sean has been high every single day,” said Steel. 

The lawyer also described the rough conditions in jail, saying Combs was attacked by a fellow inmate holding a shank, and prison guards stopped the assailant as he was standing over Combs, about to “cut” him. 

Steel said Combs has not slept more than two consecutive hours over the past year and hasn’t seen daylight except on his commutes to court. 

He said Combs hears screaming all night in jail, has to deal with “polluted” water and “eats chips all day long.”

Earlier this week, Combs filed a letter to the judge asking for leniency in his sentencing. 

In the letter, he apologized for “the hurt and pain that I have caused others” and vowed to “never commit a crime again.” 

He also described his dire situation in jail, writing, “I have been humbled and broken to my core.” 

A few days earlier, Ventura filed her own letter to the judge, writing that she still has nightmares about Combs, who, in a key piece of trial evidence, was seen violently beating her in a hotel.

Following the verdict, Ventura’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Meredit Firetog (Wigdor LLP) shared in a statement to Variety, “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.”

During his two-month trial earlier this year, federal prosecutors painted Combs as the leader of a criminal enterprise and a sex trafficker who violently abused women and plied them with drugs to fulfill his sexual fantasies in performances he called “freak-offs.” His defense lawyers rebutted that Combs was an amateur pornographer who had toxic, yet fully consensual relationships with his accusers.

Despite the fact that Combs was found guilty on two counts and denied bail by the judge, his attorneys claimed “a great victory” after the verdict. 

In the courtroom, Combs pumped his fist and mouthed “thank you” at the jurors. 

Members of his family and defense team cried. Lead prosecutor Maurene Comey was fired by the Department of Justice two weeks after the verdict, with no explanation.

In an interview with Variety in August, Combs’ lead counsel Marc Agnifilo said he felt Combs received “as fair a trial as possible.” 

As for Combs’ life after prison, he said, “The work that he didn’t do in his early 20s, I think he’s going to do it now. Sometimes — not all the time — he looks at [these consequences] as a blessing.”