Disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is due to learn his fate Friday at sentencing, where he is facing up to 20 years behind bars on prostitution-related charges.
Combs is also set to be confronted by his former assistant, who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” during his trial, after Judge Arun Subramanian ruled she could speak at the hearing, despite objections from the defense.
A New York jury acquitted Combs of the more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges after a two-month trial earlier this year. Combs was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, also known as the Mann Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years per count.
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Testimony from his ex-girlfriends delved into graphic details of years of violent, domestic abuse at “Freak offs” – days-long, drug-fueled orgies orchestrated at the rapper’s behest.
At Friday’s sentencing, Combs is expected to state his case to the judge in his own words as he address the court for the first time.
“The sentencing proceeding holds significant importance for Mr. Combs. He wishes to appear before the Court, address Your Honor, and allocute in the most dignified and respectful fashion possible,” Teny Geragos, one of his attorneys, wrote in a filing last week.
Combs’s legal team tried to get the rapper acquitted or, failing that, a new trial over the prostitution charges, but Subramanian denied the motions.
Now his legal team is arguing for a sentence of no more than 14 months’ prison time, which means Combs could theoretically soon walk free if the judge allows time served at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been since his arrest in September 2024.
Prosecutors, however, are seeking a sentence of at least 11 years in prison.
“The defendant tries to recast decades of abuse as simply the function of mutually toxic relationships,” prosecutors wrote to Subramanian in a recent court filing. “But there is nothing mutual about a relationship where one person holds all the power and the other ends up bloodied and bruised.”
Subramanian granted the prosecution’s request Thursday for “Mia” to share a victim impact statement at sentencing, despite objections from Combs’s legal team, who argued: “She is not a victim of anything.”
Mia was Combs’s personal assistant between 2009 and 2017 and claimed Combs sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions.
The jury found Combs guilty of the prostitution charges in relation to on-and-off girlfriend Cassie Ventura, and another ex-girlfriend who gave testimony under the pseudonym “Jane.”
Prosecutors conceded that Mia was not a victim of transportation for the purposes of prostitution.
“Mia was incredibly brave to walk into a public courtroom and testify truthfully about the worst events of her life, and stand up for herself, her friends, and abused women everywhere,” Mia’s lawyers said in a statement shared with ABC News.
Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness during the trial, is not expected to be at the hearing but submitted a three-page victim impact statement where she told of her fears over “swift retribution” should Combs walk free.
Ventura was nine months pregnant when she gave her harrowing testimony of the violence she endured at the mogul’s hands, including the multi-day “Freak Offs,” and his control over her career.
She branded her relationship with the rapper “a horrific decade of my life stained by abuse, violence, forced sex, and degradation.”
“I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial,” she said in her submission.
While Combs has been awaiting sentencing, holed up in the notorious New York jail, it has emerged that the mogul has been teaching fellow inmates how to “better themselves” on a six-week course.
The course is called “Free Game With Diddy,” which is slang for information given freely.
Combs’s legal team shared letters from inmates who have taken the course, praising the former business tycoon for sharing his secrets to success.
“The course offers exclusive insights into the journey of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, tracing his rise from humble beginnings to becoming a globally recognized icon and influential business mogul,” the syllabus says.
Kelly Rissman contributed reporting
