Feds indicate at least 6-8 years in prison as judge finalizes Diddy's sentencing date
Prosecutors appear ready for a novel argument under a recent federal guidelines amendment that prohibits acquitted conduct from being considered at sentencing.
Sean “Diddy” Combs will be sentenced on Oct. 3 after his lawyers on Tuesday abandoned their request to expedite the hearing.
The 55-year-old rapper will remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn because U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected his bail request last week.
Combs’ lawyers requested a Sept. 22 sentencing in a joint letter with prosecutors filed early Tuesday, but they filed another letter later in the morning that requested the original Oct. 3 date. Prosecutors and the U.S. Probation Office, which will evaluate Combs and make its own sentencing recommendation, didn’t object.
Judge Subramanian authorized the schedule following a short phone hearing in which his deputy clerk said he’d respond to the scheduling request in writing.
Combs faces up to 10 years in prison for each of his two convictions for interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution, but prosecutors say their “preliminary calculation” of his standard range under U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines is 51-63 months. His lawyers say it’s 21-27 months.
Prosecutors didn’t include it in their 51-63 month calculation, but they said they plan to seek a four-point enhancement in Combs’ offense level, which is a key component of federal sentencings, “for offenses involving fraud or coercion.”
If Judge Subramanian agrees, that would increase Combs’ standard range to 78-97 months in prison, which is six years and six months to slightly more than eight years. Prosecutors also indicated they may seek other enhancements because they haven’t “had adequate time to carefully consider all potentially applicable Guidelines provisions.”
The defense’s sentencing position is due Sept. 19, and prosecutors are to file their position on Sept. 26.
Prosecutors detailed their preliminary 51-63 month range in a filing last week that argued against Combs’ bail request, and they said it could increase because evidence related to the convictions “overlaps substantially with evidence related to the sex trafficking counts.”
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Prosecutors cite a U.S. Sentencing Commission guideline that was amended in November 2024 to exclude acquitted conduct from being considered relevant conduct at sentencing.
Prosecutors emphasized in trial that interstate transportation for prostitution is illegal even if everyone involved consents, but jurors had no way of indicating on the verdict sheet if they believe the commercial sex acts at the center of the transportation acts were consensual.
The acquittal on the trafficking by force, fraud or coercion charges indicates the jury agreed it was, but that isn’t enough to stop prosecutors from seeking more prison time for the transportation convictions because Combs used fraud or coercion to commit the crimes.
Prosecutors’ eight-page filing last week cites the overlapping evidence on the trafficking and transportation charges when arguing that “much of this conduct is not included in the Guidelines definition of ‘acquitted conduct’ and may be relevant to the Guidelines calculation.” They warned, however, “The Government requires additional time to consider any other potential enhancements or cross-references that may be applicable.”
Michael Freedman, a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles, said the new amendment and prosecutors’ enhancement argument sets the stage for an unusual sentencing decision for Judge Subramanian that will be ripe for appeal.
“This is avant-garde federal sentencing litigation,” Freedman said.
Freedman said prosecutors are going to act “as if they won and he did everything that they said he did, and then they’re going to try to shoehorn that into the guidelines, and it’s going to get a little bit messy.”
“These are novel amendments, so this is just going to be fodder for appeal,” he said.
Prosecutors want more prison time for obstruction of justice
When explaining the 51-63 month range, prosecutors said evidence at trial showed Combs transported seven escorts across state lines for paid sex, so “even setting aside Ms. Ventura and Jane,” Combs’ offense level must increase by the maximum allowed for number of victims, which is five and would put him at 19 instead of 14.
Prosecutors are putting him in the lowest criminal history category, and the offense level increase alone raises his standard prison sentence range from 15-21 months to 30-37 months.
However, they also say Combs deserves more time in prison because he obstructed justice and “was a manager or supervisor and the criminal activity was otherwise extensive.”
They cite his use of “the services of many of his employees, including his chief of staff Kristina Khorram, his travel advisor, his security staff, and his assistants, in order to carry out the offenses of conviction.”
The jury’s acquittal on the racketeering conspiracy count rejected prosecutors’ argument that Khorram and the security staff were knowing co-conspirators, but prosecutors said, “Even if all of those employees were ‘unknowing’ participants, their years-long assistance in facilitating the criminal activity satisfies the criteria for this enhancement.”
According to prosecutors, Combs’ obstructive acts include trying to bribe security after he assaulted Ventura at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016, and, after Ventura sued him, calling his former girlfriend who testified in trial under the pseudonym Jane.
Combs secretly recorded the calls, and prosecutors used the recordings as evidence in trial. They said in their filing last week that Combs “attempted to feed Jane a false narrative regarding her participation in hotel nights to silence Jane and prevent the law enforcement investigation into the conduct.” The conduct “encompasses the conduct underlying” the prostitution charges “that gave rise to this case.”
Prosecutors factored those enhancements into their 51-63 month calculation at an offense level of 24. But they didn’t include the four-point enhancement they said they plan to seek “for offenses involving fraud or coercion.” With that, his offense level jumps to 28 and his final standard range is at least six years and six months to slightly more than eight years.
Combs’ lawyers’ 21-27 month calculation is based on an offense level of 16. They agreed with prosecutors that his base offense level is 14, but they said it should increase only two levels for the number of victims, which they said is two, for Ventura and Jane. They did not mention the escorts prosecutors named in their filing. They also said while they “fully respect” Combs’ “sentencing exposure” and “do not seek to minimize in any way,” but it “is in fact low.”
Judge Subramanian indicated during last week’s bail hearing that he’s sympathetic to prosecutors’ arguments and could sentence Combs harshly. He immediately announced his decision to keep Combs in custody, then explained his reasoning by citing the defense’s statements in closing argument about Combs’ violence.
The judge also said prosecutors presented evidence that Combs “engaged in a years-long pattern of abuse and violence, including as recently as in June of 2024.” He emphasized Combs’ violence continued while he was under investigation, including the June 2024 assault of Jane in which prosecutors had photos of her bruises as evidence.
“Now, the Court takes no position on what evidence or conduct will be relevant to the defendant’s sentence on the crimes of conviction,” said Subramanian, a 2023 Joe Biden appointee who spent his pre-bench career in bankruptcy and commercial law at Susman Godfrey LLP in New York City. “But for present purposes, the defendant is unable to meet his burden to show by clear and convincing evidence the lack of danger to any person or the community, given the evidence admitted at trial.”
Freedman, who represented baseball star Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara in his wire fraud embezzlement case last year, said the judge “has tremendous discretion,” but the recent prohibition on the consideration of acquitted conduct means the defense has “a lot easier terrain for an appeal,” Freedman said.
Overall, “the defense won the trial” because the jury acquitted on the racketeering and trafficking charges, so “their sentencing position is going to be far more, I think, tethered to reality in that regard.”
“Most of what he was charged with fizzled out and he was not convicted, and what you're left with is a much narrower set of counts of conviction with a much smaller offense level and fewer enhancements and a lower guidelines range,” Freedman said. “It’s somewhat risky, I suppose, for the judge to start doing this guidelines analysis based on the evidence that he heard at trial, because did, he wasn't convicted of a lot of this.”
“You can’t escape that he literally got acquitted on these charges,” Freedman continued. “That’s what I mean by sort of avant-garde. It’s out there in part because it’s aggressive — fine — but it’s also very untested, and so it’s novel, and I think therefore risky.”
The U.S. Probation Office is to submit its pre-sentence investigation report, which is not publicly available, by Aug. 29, and Combs’ lawyers are to file their objections by Sept. 5 and prosecutors by Sept. 12. The Probation Office then must file its final pre-sentence report on Sept. 18, one day before the defense is to file its sentencing memorandum. The prosecution’s memo is due a week later.
Post-verdict motions, which could include a motion for acquittal or a new trial, are due July 30, and prosecutors are to respond by Aug. 20.
Judge Subramanian has not yet ruled on Combs’ acquittal motion under Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which his appellate specialist Alexandra Shapiro argued on June 24.
The alternate juror got it wrong with CNN
An alternate juror who spoke to CNN last week said he didn’t know he was an alternate until shortly before deliberations, but, as I should have pointed out in the previous article, that isn’t true. The 18 people seated for the trial knew who was a juror and who was an alternate when they were sworn in, which is standard in federal court.
Meanwhile, a juror who deliberated issued an anonymous statement to ABC News defending the verdicts. The juror said they “found the idea that celebrity influence played a role in the verdict to be ‘highly insulting and belittling to the jury and the deliberation process,’” ABC reported.
“We spent over two days deliberating. Our decision was based solely on the evidence presented and how the law is stated,” the juror said. “We would have treated any defendant in the same manner regardless of who they are. I have nothing else to say.”
The alternate juror said he believes he “probably would have reached the same conclusion as the other jurors.” He also described the sexually explicit videos that prosecutors showed only to jurors, the judge and witnesses as “pretty tame.”
“Even in the videos and everything, everything seemed very consensual,” he said.
My June 29 article looks at how prosecutors and Combs’ lawyers used the videos, and how the defense showed more of the sexually explicit footage to jurors than prosecutors did:
Diddy trial jury has hundreds of hours of 'date night' or 'freak off' videos in evidence
When deliberations begin Monday in New York City, jurors in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial will have watched at least 30 minutes of video showing the parties with prostitutes that prosecutors say were brutal sex crimes at the center of the rapper’s decades-long criminal enterprise.
Other previous articles:
July 7: Alternate juror in Diddy's trial credits 'impressive' cross-exam of Dawn Richard
July 2 'Enormous victory' for Sean 'Diddy' Combs as jury acquits on trafficking, racketeering
June 29 Diddy trial jury has hundreds of hours of 'date night' or 'freak off' videos in evidence
June 16 Juror in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial dismissed over conflicting statements
June 9 Ex-girlfriend testifies about alleged post-raid sex trafficking by Sean 'Diddy' Combs
June 1 After graphic testimony, Diddy's defense asks alleged victim Mia about public praise
May 28 Capricorn Clark testifies about Diddy's gunpoint quest to kill Kid Cudi
May 23 Rapper Kid Cudi testifies in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial about 2012 Porsche torching
Here are some of my recent media appearances
I discussed the verdicts in Combs’ trial on BBC radio programs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. I also appeared in CBS Chicago:
Additionally, my friend Peter Barry interviewed me about prosecutors’ shortcomings: Meghann Cuniff Explains Why Jurors Acquitted Diddy on Racketeering and Sex Trafficking Charges https://www.okayplayer.com/amp/meghann-cuniff-diddy-acquitted-racketeering-sex-trafficking-charges-2672561668
Looking ahead, I’ll be interviewing attorney Mark Geragos on my YouTube channel this Thursday, time to be announced. Geragos’ daughter, Teny Geragos, represented Combs in trial, and Geragos acted as a consultant. He’s described himself as a longtime friend of Combs, so we should have a lot to discuss, including his “six-pack of white women” comment about the prosecutors and Judge Subramanian’s admonishment.
Again, I don’t yet know the exact time, but it’ll be Thursday, probably in the evening. I’ll announce on my socials tomorrow, and you can check my YouTube channel here.
Court documents and transcripts of closing arguments and the Rule 29 argument are available below for paid subscribers. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, you can pay through the Substack option below, or you can use Venmo (MeghannCuniff), PayPal or Zelle (meghanncuniff@gmail.com). The cost is $8 per month or $80 per year. Your paid subscriptions make my work possible. Thank you!