Sean "Diddy" Combs pressed a federal appeals court on Thursday to throw out the 50-month prison sentence he is serving for transporting prostitutes across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties, arguing the punishment was built on conduct a jury had already rejected. A panel of judges on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard the challenge nine months after a New York jury convicted him on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs’ lawyers told the court he is "serving a 50-month sentence, because the district judge acted as a thirteenth juror," and argued that his sexual exploits were protected under the First Amendment. They said he was only "creating typical amateur pornography" by transporting escorts across state lines for lengthy drug-fueled sex parties known as freak offs. Prosecutors pushed back, saying, "According to Combs, the District Court should have closed its eyes to how he carried out his... offenses and abused his victims--violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them, and plying them with drugs."
The appeal lands after a year in which Combs was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but convicted last summer after a two-month trial of the prostitution counts. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected his request for release and imposed the 50-month sentence, later saying he was not assured that if Combs were released "these crimes would not be committed again" and that the punishment was needed "to send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability."
The legal fight now centers on whether the judge could consider conduct tied to charges the jury did not sustain. Combs’ lawyers called that approach "unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice," and said "The jury refused to authorize any punishment for coercive sex or conspiracy--because the evidence showed there was none." Combs has been held at the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and the Bureau of Prisons lists his tentative release date as April 15, 2028.
