{"id":191787,"date":"2026-04-10T04:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191787\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T04:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:33:10","slug":"sean-diddy-combs-bids-for-reduced-sentence-saying-judge-gave-too-much-weight-to-abusive-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191787\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ bids for reduced sentence, saying judge gave too much weight to abusive behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court in New York weighed arguments Thursday over whether the 50-month prison term handed down<\/a> to Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs for his conviction on prostitution offenses was overly harsh and wrongly influenced by conduct he wasn\u2019t found guilty of.<\/p>\n

The three-judge panel at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals sharply questioned lawyers for Combs and the Manhattan U.S. attorney\u2019s office over the question of whether coercive and abusive behavior core to crimes Combs was acquitted of should have factored in the trial court judge\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n

Calling the case \u201cexceptionally difficult\u201d at the conclusion of the proceeding<\/a>, Judge William Nardini said the panel would reserve its decision. He said the appeal presented \u201ca question of first impression, not only for this court but apparently for any federal court of appeals in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disgraced mogul once known as \u201cPuff Daddy\u201d was convicted July 2 of two Mann Act violations, with a jury finding he transported commercial sex workers and his exes, Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura<\/a> and a woman who testified under the pseudonym \u201cJane,\u201d across state lines between 2009 and 2024 to participate in barbaric, dayslong sex parties that he dubbed \u201cfreak offs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CassieCassie Ventura and Sean “Diddy” Combs attend the “Rei Kawakubo\/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between” Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The jury acquitted Combs, 56, of the more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, which could have sent him to prison for life. He is serving out his term at a low-security prison in New Jersey. Combs is also facing dozens of lawsuits brought by men and women accusing him of sexual misconduct, allegations he denies.<\/p>\n

Among various positions, Combs\u2019 lawyers have argued that he was overly punished, claiming no other defendant with a minimal criminal history comparable to that of Combs\u2019 had ever been sentenced to as many years as he was for violating the Mann Act.<\/p>\n

In sentencing the disgraced co-founder of Bad Boy Records to just over four years in October, Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian said his sentence was informed by the heinous nature of Combs\u2019 behavior and his character that was evinced at trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou abused the power and control that you had over the lives of women you professed to love dearly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Subramanian, who also imposed a $500,000 fine at sentencing, said evidence that the freak offs women were transported to were abusive in nature was \u201cmassive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was subjugation, and it drove both Ms. Ventura and Jane to thoughts of ending their lives,\u201d the judge said at the proceeding<\/a>. \u201cThat is the reality of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Combs\u2019 attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued for the term to be reduced.<\/p>\n

She argued, in part, that circumstances referenced by the judge like coercion shouldn\u2019t have been considered to enhance the sentence because that was one of the elements underlying the sex trafficking charge the jury found Combs not guilty of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are arguing that the acquittals show that the jury didn\u2019t believe the two women were victims,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this courtroom sketch, attorney Marc Agnifolo, left, speaks at the podium, as Alexandra Shapiro, Sean Diddy Combs, and attorney Tony Riccio, seated second left to right, listen during a hearing in federal court, Friday, Nov. 24, 2024, in New York. (Jane Rosenberg via AP)<\/p>\n

Judge Miller Baker pushed back on Shapiro\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I correct in understanding that we have this factual finding that we have two women, who were plied with drugs to participate in this, and one of them became an opioid addict?\u201d the judge asked. \u201cDoesn\u2019t that support the reasonableness of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguing for the government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik rejected the idea that Combs was unduly punished for the Mann Act violations, saying his sentence was comparable to that imposed against similarly situated defendants.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor also said the judge appropriately used his discretion to consider overlapping conduct, in line with guidelines set forth by the Sentencing Commission. She said that just because the jury found Combs didn\u2019t coerce women for the purposes of trafficking them for sex didn\u2019t mean the judge should disregard evidence of coercion in his transporting them for sex.<\/p>\n

Slavik said even putting aside the question of acquitted conduct, the history and characteristics of Combs that the judge took into account were not in dispute, with Combs\u2019 defense team acknowledging his history of \u201chorrific domestic abuse,\u201d supplying drugs at freak-offs, and other bad behavior in their opening statement.<\/p>\n

The lawyers had argued that a history of assaulting women didn\u2019t make Combs guilty of the crimes charged.<\/p>\n

Likening the prosecution\u2019s eight-week case to a pizza, Slavik said the judge\u2019s sentence was based on a slice of conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn considering the guidelines, he\u2019s not considering that whole pizza pie, he\u2019s considering a slice, and what\u2019s in that slice, it\u2019s what tends to prove the Mann Act,\u201d Slavik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he looks at the two specific incidents of coercion, those incidents are specifically tied to transportation, they\u2019re specifically tied to the Mann Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(L\/R)(L\/R) Karen Agnifilo walks with Marc Agnifilo, lead attorney for Sean “Diddy” Combs,” as they arrive at the Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse in New York on April 9, 2026. (Photo by TIMOTHY A.CLARY \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Combs\u2019 arguments for overturning his conviction took up little to no time Thursday.<\/p>\n

In court filings, his attorneys have maintained that he didn\u2019t pay commercial escorts flown to freak-offs for sex, but for their time, and that the freak-offs were a creative endeavor to make amateur, free-speech-protected porn.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombs masturbated and sometimes sexually participated during freak-offs and Hotel Nights, \u2018suggesting that the purpose was his immediate sexual gratification,\u2019\u201d prosecutors wrote in their opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is thus far afield from the pornographer state cases on which Combs relies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal appeals court in New York weighed arguments Thursday over whether the 50-month prison term handed down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[266,85,9,24,264,12,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-191787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-county","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-queens","16":"tag-queens-headlines","17":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}