Prosecutors on Friday urged a federal judge in New York to hand music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs an 11-year prison sentence following his conviction on prostitution-related charges, arguing that he has shown little remorse for his actions.
“This is not a person who has accepted responsibility,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told the court during the sentencing hearing. “His remorse was qualified. It’s as though he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him.”
Combs, 55, was convicted in July on two counts under a federal statute criminalizing the transportation of individuals across state lines for prostitution. Jurors, however, acquitted him of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, sparing him the possibility of life imprisonment.
Federal sentencing guidelines suggest a prison term of between six and seven years, but Judge Arun Subramanian noted he had discretion to impose a longer or shorter sentence. He also observed Combs’s “apparent lack of remorse,” pointing to the rapper’s vigorous denial of his factual guilt throughout the trial.
Prosecutors alleged that Combs even scheduled speaking engagements in Miami for next week, anticipating a lenient sentence. Slavik called the move “the height of hubris.”
Defense attorneys countered with a plea for a 14-month sentence—effectively time served—emphasizing Combs’s role as a father of six and his year-long incarceration in Brooklyn. In a letter to the court, Combs said prison had left him “reborn,” adding: “I lost my way. I got lost in the drugs and the excess. I will never commit a crime again.”
Combs’s mother and children submitted letters in his support, while his former partner Casandra Ventura—known as Cassie—urged the judge to consider “the many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control.”
Ventura, who testified extensively during the trial, described years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. In a letter, she recalled courtroom footage showing Combs kicking and beating her during a 2016 incident, saying the trauma has left her with lasting nightmares and flashbacks.
The defense did not dispute Combs’s history of violence but argued the behavior did not meet the threshold for the charges prosecutors initially sought.
Judge Subramanian is expected to issue a final ruling on Combs’s sentence in the coming days.