A judge overseeing the criminal case against Sean “Diddy” Combs denied his request to toss his conviction on prostitution-related charges or allow for a new trial after the parties had a hearing on the topic last Thursday.
Judge Arun Subramanian said in his decision filed Tuesday that he disagreed with Combs’ legal team’s two main arguments — that the definition of prostitution should be interpreted narrowly in relation to charges under the Mann Act, which criminalizes transporting someone across state lines for prostitution, and that Combs was protected by the First Amendment as a producer and consumer of amateur pornography.
The decision comes after federal prosecutors say Combs should face more than 11 years in prison, arguing he deserves a steep sentence for physically and mentally abusing his girlfriends and employees for years.
In a 161-page filing, prosecutors urged Judge Arun Subramanian to reject Combs’ request for a sentence of 14 months, essentially time served, because they argue he hasn’t shown any remorse and instead has sought to blame the victims in the case.
“Time and again he has shown that he is concerned only with his own power and control. Only a significant term of imprisonment—meted out in a substantial number of years— can effectively deter him and show future victims that their abusers will be held accountable, no matter their wealth or fame,” prosecutors wrote in a memo to the judge filed late Monday.
They are also seeking the maximum fine allowed of $500,000.
The US probation department has recommended a sentence ranging between five and seven years in prison. Combs is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.
Prosecutors submitted letters from Cassie Ventura, her parents, and former employees who urged the judge to consider the victims, some of whom fear retribution. Combs’ former girlfriend, who testified under the pseudonym Jane, did not submit a letter to the judge.
On Tuesday evening, prosecutors submitted a letter requesting that their witness who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” be allowed to address the court ahead of Friday’s sentencing. While Mia testified that she was assaulted by the music mogul, her allegations were not part of the prostitution charges Combs was eventually convicted on, but prosecutors urged the court to grant her request given her lengthy testimony at the trial about abuse she said she suffered by Combs.
Combs’ lawyers opposed this request, because Mia is not part of the transportation scheme on which Combs was convicted, and they also asserted that she had lied while testifying in front of the jury during trial.
On Tuesday, the judge presiding over the case granted the defense team’s request for Combs to be permitted to wear street clothes. His lawyers indicated that Combs intends to address the judge before the sentence is handed down. It’s standard procedure that he will also be allowed to address the court ahead of his sentencing.
Combs was convicted in July of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years on each count. The jury acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges for allegedly forcing his girlfriends to have sex with paid male escorts at drug-fueled nights called “Freak Offs” or “hotel nights.”
In her letter to Judge Subramanian, Ventura said she doesn’t believe Combs is a changed man.
“I know that who he was to me—the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker—is who he is as a human. He has no interest in changing or becoming better. He will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is,” she wrote to the judge.
Ventura said she moved her family away from New York out of fear of Combs.
“If there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it is that victims and survivors will never be safe,” she wrote. “I hope that your decision considers the truths at hand that the jury failed to see.”
Combs’ lawyers have argued the judge shouldn’t consider any evidence related to the charges he was acquitted of, including testimony about his alleged coercion of the victims.
Prosecutors said the judge should consider Combs’ history of physical violence and control of Ventura and Jane, saying it is part of the transportation crime he was convicted of.
“Although the sex at Freak Offs and Hotel Nights was at heart of this case, this case is not only about sex. Freak Offs and Hotel Nights left both victims scarred and caused them to question their own self-worth and desire to live. A sentence of at least 135 months’ imprisonment is necessary to reflect the defendant’s violence, threats, and other abuse that still impact the victims today,” prosecutors wrote in memo to the judge.
The disgraced music mogul has been jailed since his arrest in September 2024. The judge twice denied him bail after the verdict, citing Combs’ history of violence.
In writing to the judge, Ventura referenced the most “traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life.”
“He groomed me into performing repeated sex acts with hired male sex workers during multi-day ‘freak offs,’ which occurred nearly weekly. 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,” Ventura wrote.
Her parents, Regina and Rodrick Ventura, asked Judge Subramanian to consider the 11-year “horrific nightmare” their daughter lived in her relationship with Combs.
“To sentence lightly in this case that involved such vicious abuses of our daughters’ body, safety and dignity is to dismiss her very existence,” they wrote.