Sean Combs’ attorneys have pushed an appeals court to expedite its decision on whether the Bad Boy founder was improperly sentenced following his criminal trial, in hopes of securing his release from prison.
The 56-year-old is currently serving a 50-month sentence at Fort Dix, a low-security federal facility in New Jersey, after he was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs’ scheduled release date is April 15, 2028, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The conviction stems from Combs’ eight-week trial last summer where he was accused of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking his girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman identified as Jane. Although a New York jury rejected those charges, they did find Combs guilty of causing male escorts to travel across state lines to have sex with the women in sexual encounters known as “freak-offs.”
Following Combs’ sentencing in October, his attorneys appealed U.S. District Court judge Arun Subramanian’s decision, arguing, in part, that he had improperly taken into consideration acquitted conduct of fraud and coercion when making his sentencing determination.
Combs was not present during the two-hour hearing Thursday, in which his attorney Alexandra Shapiro presented his case to three federal appellate judges who serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “This case presents an important issue about respect for jury verdicts and public confidence in our criminal justice system,” said Shapiro, who also was part of Combs’ defense team during the trial. “Multiple justices have questioned the constitutionality of acquitted conduct sentencing.”
The judges did not indicate when a decision would be returned and gave no indication on which way they were leaning, grilling Shapiro and Assistant United States Attorney Christy Slavik about their respective arguments to the court.
One judge noted that it’s constitutional to consider all of Combs’ conduct to determine an appropriate sentence and questioned Combs’ attorney why the “factual findings” from the trial, like the “psychological abuse, emotional abuse and plying these two women with drugs” shouldn’t be taken into consideration.
The same judge pressed Slavik on why the Mann Act — the basis of the transportation to engage in prostitution charges — was treated like a “side show” as prosecutors pursued their main theories of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. “Why shouldn’t we hold you to the way you prosecuted the case?” the judge asked. “You went to the jury and you said, ‘This man did all these terrible things for purposes of the RICO conspiracy, for [the] purposes of sex trafficking, and they acquitted him.” Combs’ appeal is part of his multi-pronged bid to secure his release from prison. He has also asked the appeals court to overturn his conviction, and has written a personal letter to his old acquaintance, President Donald Trump asking for a pardon.
Eric Rojas*
