Lawyers for music mogul Sean 'P Diddy' Combs have made an urgent plea to a federal appeals court, demanding his immediate release from prison and the overturning of his conviction earlier this year.
Grounds for the Appeal
The disgraced 56-year-old artist is currently serving a four-year sentence at FCI Fort Dix, having been transferred there in October 2025. He is held in a special drug treatment unit and is not eligible for standard release until 2028.
In a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, Combs's legal team argued that the sentencing judge, Arun Subramanian, acted improperly. They claim he behaved like a "thirteenth juror" by allowing evidence related to charges Combs was acquitted of to unjustly influence the punishment.
Combs was convicted in July 2025 under the Mann Act for transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution, offences his lawyers stress did not involve findings of force, fraud, or coercion by the jury. He was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
The Alleged Judicial Overreach
"Defendants typically get sentenced to less than 15 months for these offences — even when coercion, which the jury didn’t find here, is involved," his lawyers wrote. They contend that Judge Subramanian effectively overrode the jury's verdict by finding that Combs had "coerced" and "exploited" his former girlfriends.
This, they argue, led to "the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant." The legal filing asks the appeals court to either acquit Combs, order his immediate release, or direct Judge Subramanian to significantly reduce the sentence.
Details from the Trial and Sentencing
During the trial, the court heard graphic testimony from two of Combs's former partners. Cassandra 'Cassie' Ventura testified that during their decade-long relationship, which ended in 2018, Combs forced her into sexual encounters with strangers hundreds of times. Jurors were shown a video of him assaulting her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway.
A second woman, who testified under the pseudonym Jane, described being pressured into sexual acts with male sex workers during drug-fuelled "hotel nights" from 2021 to 2024.
At the sentencing in October, Judge Subramanian rejected the defence's characterisation of events as consensual. "You abused the power and control that you had over the lives of women you professed to love dearly," he told Combs. "You abused them physically, emotionally, and psychologically."
The appeals court has not yet scheduled a date to hear oral arguments in the case.
