Sean 'Diddy' Combs appeals harsh sentence in pre-Christmas filing, asks court for release

FORT DIX, NEW JERSEY: Rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs is hoping for a Christmas miracle in the form of an immediate release, which was filed on Tuesday, December 23.

Combs’s lawyers argued that Judge Arun Subramanian’s sentence for Diddy was harsh, accusing him of acting like the “thirteenth juror” during his trial. 

Sean Combs's lawyers allege judge's involvement in 'criminal conspiracy'

In an appeal filed on Tuesday, Alexandra Shapiro, Sean Combs’s lawyer, accused the federal judge of being “unlawful” and “unconstitutional.” 

She stated that Judge Arun Subramanian did something wrong by letting evidence regarding the charges for which the rapper was acquitted influence the sentence received.

She added that since Combs was found guilty of two fewer counts, the court should either order the celebrity’s immediate release or overturn Subramanian’s ruling.

The lawyers argued further that, in cases such as Diddy’s, the defendants received less than 15 months. 

Shapiro argued that the judge had “defied the jury’s verdict” and ruled that Combs had coerced, exploited, and forced his girlfriends to be physically intimate with him and, in doing so, had “led a criminal conspiracy.”

“These judicial findings trumped the verdict and led to the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant,” Shapiro wrote. 

Diddy was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in p******ution in July 2025 and received a sentence of four years and two months in prison. He was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey, to serve out his 50-month sentence.

Ex-NBA star offers update on Diddy 

Former NBA star Sebastian Telfair, who was recently released from FCI Fort Dix prison, offered an update on his fellow inmate and rapper, Diddy.

While speaking to TMZ, he said that he met some good people while in prison and gave a “shout out” to Diddy. He said that his “boy” Diddy was in there as well, adding that he couldn’t imagine how he felt. 

“But Diddy’s holding it down, he’s doing what he’s got to do,” he said.

Telfair added that everyone knew the rapper’s “business,” noting that he was living the life of a rock star. He added that he was glad Sean Combs was going to get the time to “relax” and said that Diddy was in “good spirits.”