His lawyers are swinging hard, but prosecutors say the conviction and sentence should stand.
Nine months after a New York jury handed down a split verdict that landed Sean “Diddy” Combs in federal prison, the music mogul brought his case before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday. His legal team is pushing for two things: immediate release and a full reversal of his conviction. Prosecutors are asking the court to uphold both the verdict and the sentence.
What Combs was convicted of
After an eight-week trial last summer, a jury acquitted Combs on the most serious charges against him, including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He was found guilty on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act, specifically for arranging travel for escorts to participate in sex acts with his then-girlfriends, Cassie Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced Combs to 50 months in prison in October, rejecting his lawyers’ bid for immediate release. The judge noted that Combs had been able to engage in violent and abusive conduct for years without consequence. He made clear that a firm sentence was necessary to signal accountability, both to those who cause harm and to those who suffer it.
The First Amendment argument
Combs’ legal team is asking the appeals court to throw out the conviction altogether. Their argument centers on the nature of the conduct itself. They contend the sex sessions at the heart of the case, which prosecutors and witnesses referred to as freak offs, were choreographed performances involving costumes, staged lighting and role play that were filmed so Combs and his partners could watch later. In their view, that makes the activity amateur pornography, which they argue is protected expression under the First Amendment.
Prosecutors called that argument meritless. Their position is that transporting people across state lines to engage in sex for money is not expressive conduct under the law, regardless of whether it was filmed. They warned that accepting Combs’ interpretation would allow any defendant caught transporting someone for prostitution to avoid liability simply by recording what happened.
The sentencing dispute
The second major argument before the appeals court concerns how Combs’ sentence was calculated. His lawyers contend that Judge Subramanian acted as a thirteenth juror by factoring in conduct tied to the charges of which Combs was acquitted. They point to new guidelines from the U.S. Sentencing Commission that restrict the use of acquitted conduct when calculating advisory sentencing ranges. They also note that defendants convicted of similar prostitution-related offenses typically receive sentences closer to 15 months, making Combs’ 50-month term roughly four times the norm.
Prosecutors pushed back firmly. They argued the new sentencing guidelines apply to the calculation of the sentencing range, not to the broader determination of what sentence to impose. At that stage, judges are permitted to weigh the full character of the defendant and the nature of the offense. They also argued the judge was focused specifically on conduct relevant to the Mann Act counts and did not improperly expand the scope of the sentencing.
Where things stand
Combs has been held in federal custody since his arrest in September 2024, spending approximately 14 months in a Brooklyn federal jail before his trial and sentencing. He is now serving his sentence at the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey. The Bureau of Prisons lists his tentative release date as April 15, 2028.
He may also be eligible for a reduced sentence under the First Step Act and through participation in a drug rehabilitation program, which could move that date earlier. For now, the appeals court will decide whether any of his legal arguments are strong enough to change the outcome.