Disgraced hip-hop icon Sean “Diddy” Combs is so confident he’ll be released from jail on time served, he has already booked speaking engagements for next week, prosecutors revealed during his sentencing Friday.
The shocking revelation came as prosecutors began opening arguments in Manhattan federal court, pressing their case that the Bad Boy Records founder should be sent to prison for more than 11 years.
“Even now at sentencing for his conviction for two federal crimes … he doesn’t fully grapple with how his actions got him here,” federal prosecutor Mary Slavik said. “His respect for the law is just lip service.
The damning condemnation of Combs’ alleged arrogance unfolded as Slavick argued that the music mogul used his power and wealth to abuse and sexually humiliate his victims, including his longtime ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Combs, 55, was convicted on two prostitution counts in July, but acquitted on more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.
The two-month trial exposed the sordid details of Combs’ sick proclivity for “freak-offs” — baby oil-drenched and drug-fueled marathons in which he forced Ventura and others to have sex with male escorts.
But Slavick said the case wasn’t just about the depraved “freak-offs.”
“This isn’t a case about just sex,” she said. “It’s a case about real victims who suffered real harm at the hands of the defendant … it’s about a man who did horrible things to other people to satisfy his own sexual gratification.”
Victims who testified at the trial, including Ventura, weren’t expected to make appearances during the sentencing, though they submitted lengthy statements detailing the traumatic aftermath of the rapper’s abuse.
One victim — Combs’ ex-assistant who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” — had been slated to speak, but she backed out at the last minute after the mogul’s attorneys attacked her credibility in a court filing that prosecutors deemed “bullying.”
Judge Arun Subramanian agreed that the defense letter crossed a line.
“The tone of the defense’s letter was inappropriate,” he said.
While Combs’ victims won’t speak, the defense said two or three of his children will make statements, as well as the Rev. Gary Johnson and two doctors who evaluated the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper.
Subramanian also said he could consider Combs’ acquitted conduct — meaning charges that the jury did not convict the “All About The Benjamins” rapper on could still factor into his sentence.
Those include the many accounts of Combs’ wretched violence that were presented at trial.
Combs, who wore an oatmeal sweater and sported grayish-white hair, visibly slumped at the defense table when it became clear that the judge would consider those despicable actions.
Later, when Slavick noted that Combs admitted to the violence, the mogul who once stood atop the entertainment world sharply exhaled and appeared to mouth the word “f–k.”
Combs’ attorneys have opposed this idea as they’ve argued for a lenient sentence.
Subramanian, as the hearing began, said sentencing guideline calculations called for a term of between nearly six and seven years behind bars.
The judge, however, could impose a sentence that’s shorter or longer than the recommendation.
Slavick contended Combs’ “abuse was consistent, casual even, but life-altering for those on the bruised end of it.”
She ended the feds’ pre-sentencing statement by urging the judge to slap Combs with 11 years and three months in prison.
“The defendant claims he moved on … it’s important for the court to recognize that his victims don’t have that luxury of moving on so easily,” Slavick said. “They’re still picking up the pieces.”
Combs, in a last-ditch plea for leniency, penned a letter to Subramanian on Thursday arguing he’s a changed man who deserves a “second chance.”
“I can’t change the past, but I can change the future,” he wrote. “I know that God put me here to transform me. Since incarceration, I have gone through a spiritual reset.
“If you allow me to go home to my family, I promise I will not let you down and I will make you proud.”
Diddy has been jailed in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center since his September 2024 arrest.
