Sean Combs (at right) watches his children present impact statements during his sentencing hearing in New York. Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
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Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
On Friday, Sean Combs was sentenced by a federal judge to 50 months in prison. The 55-year-old music mogul was convicted in July on two counts of transportation for prostitution, but acquitted on more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
After a daylong hearing that culminated in Combs himself addressing the judge, speaking at length for the first time during the trial, Judge Arun Subramanian said that a significant sentence was required to “send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability.”
Subramanian made his decision after hearing arguments from federal prosecutors, Combs’ defense attorneys and Combs himself. His defense attorneys had argued that their client should receive no more than 14 months behind bars. With time already served, that would mean he’d be released by the end of the year. Federal prosecutors, on the other hand, requested that Subramanian sentence Combs to no less than 11 years and three months in prison.
Combs has been held in a Brooklyn jail since his arrest last September. The sentencing hearing was the culmination of an eight-week trial defined by emotionally-charged testimony, celebrity appearances and a buzzing courthouse packed with hordes of Combs’ supporters, social media influencers and reporters. Federal prosecutors spent six weeks presenting an elaborate, sometimes meandering case that accused Combs of operating a criminal organization that enabled and concealed sex crimes for decades. Their two main witnesses, the singer Cassie Ventura and a woman who testified using the pseudonym “Jane,” told the court that Combs lured them into romantic relationships and then repeatedly forced them into drug-fueled sex marathons with male escorts.
Combs’ defense team spent much of the trial discrediting the women’s testimony by presenting text message evidence in which Ventura and Jane each appeared to be agreeing to the encounters and helping to plan them. After the prosecution presented more than two dozen witnesses — including Combs’ former employees, federal agents and friends of the alleged victims — the defense called none, and rested its case in under 30 minutes. Ultimately, a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, but found him guilty of transporting Jane and Ventura across state lines to engage in commercial sex.
Despite Combs’ acquittal on the most serious charges, nobody — not even his own lawyers — denied that he caused harm. A key piece of evidence in the case was a 2016 surveillance video of Combs beating Ventura in a hotel hallway. Throughout the trial, Combs’ defense attorneys conceded that their client had a history of domestic violence, but argued the government was not charging him for those crimes.
During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors pointed to Combs’ violent behavior as a justification for a longer sentence.
