New York — Sean “Diddy” Combs has urged a federal judge to show leniency at his sentencing Friday, apologizing to victims and attributing his past conduct to decades of drug abuse in a four-page letter filed on the eve of the hearing.
Combs, 54, was convicted in July on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges. The two counts carry a maximum of 20 years; prosecutors are asking for at least 11, while the defense is seeking a release later this month following the 13 months he has already spent in a Brooklyn jail.
In the letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, Combs writes that he has been sober for the first time in 25 years and is “humbled and broken,” saying, “I lost my way… My downfall was rooted in my selfishness.” He specifically apologizes to ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura—who settled a civil suit with him last year—and to another woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane,” adding that “the old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn.”
Ventura and other accusers also wrote the court, urging a lengthy term. Ventura said she fears “swift retribution” if Combs is freed and alleged he “will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man.”
Combs’s filing highlights his jailhouse sobriety, religious study, and a class he says he taught to fellow inmates on business skills. He asked the judge to consider his seven children and his 84-year-old mother’s health, arguing he should be made an example of rehabilitation rather than punishment: “what a person can do if afforded a second chance.”
Prosecutors pushed back in a September 29 memo, calling Combs “unrepentant” and arguing he is attempting to reframe “decades of abuse” as mutual dysfunction. “There is nothing mutual about a relationship where one person holds all the power and the other ends up bloodied and bruised,” they wrote.
Combs is expected to address the court at the hearing. Four defense lawyers are slated to argue on his behalf, and the team plans to show a 15-minute video; its contents were not disclosed.
The case caps a tumultuous period for the music mogul, long a towering figure in hip-hop and fashion, whose brand and business empire have unraveled amid multiple accusations and legal battles. The judge’s sentence will determine how much longer Combs remains behind bars and whether his claims of sobriety and contrition will sway the court.
