Sean “Diddy” Combs Pleads for Leniency Ahead of Sentencing
Hip-hop mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs has appealed to a federal judge for compassion as he faces sentencing in New York on Friday, saying he has been humbled by his time in jail and is committed to turning his life around.
In a four-page letter submitted late Thursday to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, Combs expressed remorse for his violent past and apologised to those he hurt, including singer Cassie Ventura, his former partner, and another woman known in court as “Jane.”
He admitted that drug use and excess had consumed him, writing: “The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn.”
The 55-year-old music mogul was convicted in July of transporting women across state lines for prostitution, but acquitted of more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He has already spent 13 months in custody at a Brooklyn detention centre.
Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of more than 11 years, while his defence team has urged the court to consider time already served and allow his release later this month.
Prosecutors argue that Combs has shown little genuine remorse, describing him as “unrepentant” in a September filing.
They insist that his decades of abuse cannot be dismissed as the product of toxic relationships, stressing that “there is nothing mutual about a relationship where one person holds all the power and the other ends up bloodied and bruised.”
Victims have also written to the court, urging a lengthy sentence. Ventura warned that she feared swift retaliation if Combs were freed, describing him as “cruel, power-hungry and manipulative.” Another accuser said the trauma she endured remains with her years later.
In his plea for leniency, Combs highlighted his seven children and his 84-year-old mother, who recently underwent brain surgery. He said he now mentors fellow inmates in business and is sober “for the first time in 25 years.” “I have been humbled and broken to my core,” he wrote. “I ask for mercy not only for myself, but for the sake of my family.”
His children, who attended Friday’s hearing, spoke emotionally on his behalf. A defence video montage showing Combs with his family and engaging in community work was also presented in court.
Judge Subramanian, who has previously cited Combs’s history of domestic violence in denying bail, is expected to deliver the sentence later on Friday.
Combs, who is also scheduled to address the court directly, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
