BY MIRABEL ODETA
Lawyers representing hip-hop mogul Sean Combs are expected to argue before a federal appeals court that the judge who presided over his criminal trial improperly relied on allegations of abuse involving former girlfriends when sentencing him to more than four years in prison on prostitution-related charges.
Combs, 56, has asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn both his conviction and his prison sentence. The music executive is currently serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix, a low-security federal prison located in New Jersey.
The case stems from a highly publicized seven-week trial that took place in Manhattan federal court last year. Prosecutors alleged that Combs organized drug-fueled sexual encounters involving two of his former girlfriends and male sex workers. These encounters, which sometimes lasted for days, were described during the trial as “Freak Offs,” a term used by witnesses and prosecutors to describe the elaborate sexual performances.
Combs, the founder of the influential music label Bad Boy Records, was convicted by a jury on July 2, 2025, of two counts of transporting individuals across state lines to engage in prostitution. The charges were brought under the Mann Act, a federal statute that criminalizes transporting people for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sexual activity.
However, jurors rejected the most serious accusations against him. The jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that prosecutors had argued were central to the case. Those charges alleged that he forced two women—R&B singer Casandra Ventura and another woman identified in court only by the pseudonym “Jane”—to participate in the sexual encounters against their will.
Prosecutors claimed during the trial that Combs coerced the women into engaging in sexual acts with male escorts while he watched, masturbated, and occasionally filmed the encounters. The defense maintained that the activities were consensual and part of adult relationships that later became the subject of legal disputes.
At Thursday’s hearing, defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro is expected to argue that Combs’ conviction should be overturned because prosecutors failed to prove that he directly participated in prostitution. According to the defense, the evidence presented during the trial only showed that Combs watched the encounters rather than actively engaging in them.
Shapiro will also challenge the length of the sentence imposed by Arun Subramanian, the federal judge who oversaw the trial and later sentenced Combs in October 2025. The judge ordered Combs to serve 50 months in prison after concluding that evidence presented during the trial demonstrated a pattern of abusive and coercive behavior toward the women involved.
The defense argues that the judge improperly relied on conduct connected to the charges for which Combs had been acquitted. In particular, Shapiro has objected to the court considering testimony that Combs threatened to release an explicit video involving Ventura and allegedly warned the other woman that he would stop paying her rent if she refused to participate in the sexual encounters.
In court filings submitted ahead of the appeal hearing, Shapiro argued that using such allegations during sentencing violated fundamental legal principles.
“It was unlawful, unconstitutional and a perversion of justice to sentence Combs as if the jury had found him guilty of sex trafficking and RICO,” she wrote, referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Federal prosecutors strongly disagree with the defense’s arguments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik wrote in court filings that the sentencing judge acted properly by considering evidence presented during the trial that showed threats and abuse directed at the women involved.
According to prosecutors, even though the jury did not convict Combs of sex trafficking, the evidence still demonstrated how he carried out the prostitution-related offenses.
“According to Combs, the District Court should have closed its eyes to how he carried out his Mann Act offenses and abused his victims,” Slavik wrote in the government’s legal response.
During the trial and in statements after the verdict, Combs acknowledged that he had physically abused some of his former partners. However, he insisted that those incidents were separate from the sexual encounters at the center of the criminal case.
His legal team has argued that the sexual events described in court were consensual and that they were part of private relationships rather than criminal enterprises.
The appeals court’s decision could determine whether Combs receives a new trial, a reduced sentence, or whether the conviction remains unchanged. Legal experts note that federal appeals courts rarely overturn jury verdicts but sometimes review whether sentencing decisions were properly calculated under federal guidelines.
According to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Combs is currently scheduled to be released from prison on April 15, 2028, unless the appeals court rules in his favor or grants some form of relief that shortens his sentence.
Original article
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