Days after he was transferred to a federal prison in Latest Jersey to finish his 50-month sentence, Sean “Diddy” Combs has scored one other legal win when a judge granted him a speedy appeal, essentially handing his team of lawyers the whole lot that they’d asked of the court.
In a transient note on Monday, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Beth Robinson approved the request from Combs’ legal team, who hope to save lots of their client from prison time after the surprise sentence handed down by the federal judge who oversaw the fallen rap mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial, which ran for eight weeks and ended with a split verdict that saw Combs found guilty by jury of transportation for prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act. He was spared a possible life sentence when found not guilty of the more serious charges.
The potential appeals schedule timeline proposed by the judge has Combs’ transient due by Dec. 23 and the U.S. government’s transient scheduled to be delivered by Feb. 20; Combs’ legal team’s reply is due by March 13. In line with Judge Robinson, oral arguments would happen in early April if the schedule stays on course.
“Sean’s appeal will challenge the unfair use of the Mann Act, an infamous statute with a sordid history, to prosecute him for sex with consenting adults,” defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said in an announcement released last week. Through the sentencing phase of Combs’ trial, his attorneys sought a narrow definition of prostitution and argued that, as he didn’t profit in any respect from the sex that he was accused of coercing between male prostitutes and two of his girlfriends, there was no trafficking that took place.
During sentencing, attorneys for Combs sought time served of 14 months for his or her client — time which Combs served on the Metropolitan Correction Center, a notorious lockup in Brooklyn — while he was awaiting trial. The prosecution asked the judge to sentence Combs to a minimum of 11 years and three months.
FCI Ft. Dix, where Combs is now serving his sentence, is a low-security federal penitentiary in Latest Hanover Township in Latest Jersey. Due to its proximity to his family home and a rehab program that might see him housed outside of the final population, it was the ex-mogul’s top alternative. It houses roughly 4,000 inmates. This week, Combs was spotted on camera chatting and laughing with the opposite inmates housed at the power, in line with TMZ.
The rapper is currently scheduled to be released on May 8, 2028 but he could also be eligible for early release for good behavior as a part of the Bureau of Prisons’ First Step program.