Federal prosecutors have urged a New York judge to hand Sean “Diddy” Combs an 11-year prison sentence, arguing the music mogul has shown no genuine remorse following his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.
“This is not a person who has accepted responsibility,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told the court Friday. “His remorse was qualified. It’s as though he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him. His respect for the law is just lip service.”
Combs’s defense team, however, is asking for a 14-month sentence, which would amount to time already served.
Slavik accused the 55-year-old hip-hop icon of arrogance, saying he had already booked speaking engagements in Miami next week in anticipation of a light sentence — an act she described as “the height of hubris.”
Judge Arun Subramanian noted that sentencing guidelines recommend a term of six to seven years but emphasized he has discretion to impose more or less. He also highlighted Combs’s “full-throated” challenge of his guilt as evidence of limited remorse.
Combs, who has been in custody in Brooklyn for over a year, submitted a letter to the judge on Thursday pleading for mercy. “I lost my way. I got lost in the drugs and the excess,” he wrote, adding that prison had left him “humbled and broken to my core.”
Jurors in July cleared Combs of the most serious charges — sex trafficking and racketeering — sparing him a potential life sentence. Still, he was convicted of transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution.
Victim Testimony and Fallout
His former girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, described years of abuse, including violent incidents and being coerced into orchestrated sexual encounters known as “freak-offs.”
“The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak-off in 2016,” Ventura wrote in a letter to the judge. She said she continues to suffer nightmares and flashbacks and has left New York with her family out of fear of retribution.
Another woman, identified as Jane, also testified to similar abuse.
While the defense did not deny Combs’s violent history or sexual practices, they argued the relationships were consensual and fell short of the federal trafficking and racketeering thresholds.
Combs’s mother and six children were present in court and have written letters of support, while Combs himself vowed in his statement: “I will never commit a crime again.”
