Diddy is pushing for freedom sooner rather than later, telling a federal appeals court that his prison sentence was shaped by accusations a jury already rejected.
According to the Associated Press, late Tuesday, attorneys for the rap mogul filed an appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, asking judges to overturn his prostitution related conviction, order his immediate release, or send the case back for a lighter sentence. The filing argues that the punishment handed down went far beyond what the jury’s verdict supported.
Diddy, 56, is serving a four-year, two-month sentence at a federal facility in New Jersey, with a projected release date of May 2028. While jurors cleared him in July of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, they found him guilty on two counts under the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for sexual purposes.
According to his lawyers, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian improperly relied on evidence tied to the acquitted charges when determining the sentence. They accused the judge of stepping outside his role, writing that he acted as a “thirteenth juror.”
“Defendants typically get sentenced to less than 15 months for these offenses — even when coercion, which the jury didn’t find here, is involved,” the attorneys wrote. They also argued that the judge’s findings “trumped the verdict and led to the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant.”
During sentencing, Subramanian said he rejected claims that the conduct amounted to consensual behavior, pointing to testimony from two former girlfriends who described being pressured into prolonged sexual encounters with male sex workers. One of those witnesses was Cassie Ventura, who told jurors Diddy ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their relationship.
Subramanian told Diddy directly, “You abused the power and control that you had over the lives of women you professed to love dearly.”
The appeals court has not yet scheduled oral arguments, leaving the fate of Diddy’s request for immediate release undecided.
