Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison last year. This was a major victory considering that many thought he was going away for a very long time, but his lawyers are arguing that even the 50 months is too much. Since the sentencing, his legal team has appealed on several grounds. Post sentencing, they argued that Combs wasn’t engaging in prostitution; rather, he was just a constitutionally protected amateur pornographer. As interesting as that attempt at reclassification is, a novel legal question posed to the Second Circuit could be the strategy that sticks. Complex has coverage:
At the center of Thursday’s argument was the issue of whether Judge Subramanian considered acquitted conduct when sentencing Diddy. Almost all of the mogul’s legal team for his seven-week trial was on hand, including Brian Steel, Marc Agnifilo, and Nicole Westmoreland. Several members of Diddy’s friends and family were also there, though the mogul himself, his mother, and his children were absent.
Alexandra Shapiro’s primary argument was that, because her client was acquitted of sex trafficking charges — and thus the jury didn’t find Diddy guilty of having used force, fraud, or coercion to get Cassie Ventura and the pseudonymous Jane Doe to participate in the freak-offs — Judge Subramanian had erred when he’d added an enhancement for coercion to the mogul’s sentencing guidelines.
In response, the prosecution argued that the enhancements didn’t come from characterizations of acquitted behavior, but from behaviors Diddy admitted to at trial. Judge Subramanian also mentioned that they’d have given Combs the same 50 months without factoring in any enhancements, but just saying you didn’t do a thing isn’t enough to rule out that you did.
This case gets more interesting with time. This is the part where we would promise to keep you up to date on the court proceedings, but no journalistic endeavors can hold a candle to the pettiness of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. If the ruling doesn’t come down in Combs’s favor, he will be the first one to tell you.
Diddy Appeals Hearing: Lawyers Argue for Freedom, Judge Calls It an ‘Exceptionally Difficult Case’ [Complex]
Earlier: Diddy Did…Some Of It
Diddy ‘Freakoff’ Case Takes Unexpected Constitutional Turn
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.
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