Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs have asked a federal judge to release him from jail ahead of his sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 3, saying that there are “exceptional reasons” why he shouldn’t remain behind bars.
Combs was convicted on July 2 on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution in a split verdict that acquitted him of two counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering conspiracy.
In a letter Tuesday addressed to Judge Arun Subramanian, who presided over Combs’ trial, attorneys for the rap music mogul argued that there were “exceptional reasons” that merited Combs’ release, stating in part that the law under which Combs was convicted “has never been applied to facts similar to these to prosecute or incarcerate any other person.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs attends Day 1 of 2023 Invest Fest at Georgia World Congress Center on August 26, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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“There has literally never been a case, like this one, where a person and his girlfriend arranged for adult men to have consensual sexual relations with the adult, long-term girlfriend as part of a demonstrated swingers lifestyle, and has been prosecuted and incarcerated under the Mann Act,” the defense letter said. “Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct.”
The 12-page letter proposes that Combs be released on $50 million bail and reside in his home in Miami while awaiting sentencing, with any travel “limited to the Southern District of Florida, the Southern District of New York for attorney meetings, as well as airports necessary to travel between the two.”
Though Combs was acquitted of the more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, Subramanian declined to release him on bail prior to sentencing, citing a provision in the transportation to engage in prostitution law that he said presumes detention.
Combs has spent more than 10 months behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest in Sept. 2024. His attorneys initially attempted and then discontinued efforts to secure an earlier sentencing date for him.
