Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs family and friends plead for his release ahead of sentencing

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

New York (CNN) — Family, friends, former employees and business associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs submitted more than 70 letters asking a federal judge for leniency ahead of his sentencing next week.

“I don’t know how much longer I will be around but I would love to be able to see him and his children together again,” Janice Combs, his 84-year-old mother who regularly attended his trial, said in a signed a letter explaining her health struggles to the judge.

Combs is scheduled to be sentenced October 3.

His lawyers have asked Judge Arun Subramanian to sentence the disgraced music mogul to no more than 14 months in prison, including his time already served, after being convicted on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. Each count carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

If the judge agrees to the lawyers’ request, he’d essentially guarantee Combs’ imminent release from federal detention in Brooklyn, New York, where he’s been since his September 2024 arrest.

Judge Subramanian has denied Combs bail multiple times, including after his July conviction.

Prosecutors, who will also submit a sentencing recommendation before the hearing, have previously said Combs should face a minimum of four to five years in prison and could still argue for a steeper sentence.

In July after a more than six-week trial, a jury acquitted Combs of the more serious charges he faced – racketeering conspiracy and two counts each of sex trafficking.

In their Monday filing, Combs’ lawyers said the court’s probation department recommendation of 70 to 87 months in prison is “infected” with errors and “grossly overstates the seriousness of the offense.”

‘Please allow him the chance to come home’

In the 380-page filing, Comb’s attorneys touted his violence-free record while in federal detention and contributions to his fellow inmates.

The music mogul has worked with inmates in his unit and developed a business and entrepreneurship program he calls “Free Game with Diddy,” according to the filing.

His attorneys attribute much of Combs’ reform in jail to sobriety, saying he’s sober for the first time in 25 years.

“Since tapering off Xanax, quitting alcohol, and illicit substances, his angry actions have disappeared,” they wrote in the filing.

His adopted-sister Keisha Combs wrote in her letter to Judge Subramanian that she visits Combs in detention and has seen the positive effects of his sobriety.

“The dark veil of addiction, confusion, and the chaos of his life is gone,” she wrote.

Many of the letters submitted to Judge Subramanian acknowledge the music mogul’s flawed behavior revealed during his trial and asked the judge to consider his positive personality traits and recent personal growth.

His former girlfriend, rapper “Yung Miami,” and Dana Tran, the mother of his youngest daughter, described the family-oriented version of Combs they know in their letters to the judge.

Combs’ son Christian, who’s also known as King Combs, told the judge his father doesn’t deserve to be in jail.

“I’m asking you to please let my father out of jail! He does not deserve to be there and I know this from the bottom of my heart !!,” he wrote.

Combs’ stepson Quincy Brown, whose mother is the late model and actress Kim Porter, and Combs’ oldest son Justin acknowledged the mogul’s imperfections but praised him as a father.

“My dad is not perfect. I know he has made mistakes, and I do not deny that,” Justin Combs wrote. “I humbly ask you, from the deepest part of my heart, to see my father the way I do — not through headlines, but through the eyes of a son who loves and needs him. Please allow him the chance to come home, to be the father his children desperately need, and to continue the work of becoming the man I know he is capable of being.”

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