Two months after Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a two-page notice of appeal signaling plans to challenge both his conviction and sentencing, an in-depth appeal has been filed. In court documents reviewed by Rolling Stone, attorneys for Combs call for his “immediate release” from federal prison, and request that the court “either grant a judgment of acquittal or vacate and remand for resentencing.”
Appellate attorney Alexandra A.E. Shapiro argues that the court determined Combs’ 50-month sentence following his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution with “heavy reliance on acquitted conduct.”
In July, Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, though he was found guilty of two lesser felony charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. At the time, the jury rejected prosecutors’ claims Combs ran a criminal enterprise and coerced two ex-girlfriends into drug-fueled sex with male escorts.
The latest filing accuses U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian of having “acted as a thirteenth juror” by handing down a sentence “based on the very allegations of coercion and other acquitted conduct the jury had rejected.” Shapiro states that the court ignored the verdict when it “insisted it needed to impose a ‘serious sentence’ reflecting the ‘aggravating factors that I have addressed,’ especially ‘the coercion.’”
“We’ve filed the final appellate brief in United States v. Combs, and it raises issues that go well beyond this case. In short, the appeal argues that the district court imposed a record-setting sentence by relying on conduct the jury explicitly rejected, in direct conflict with the 2024 Sentencing Guidelines and core constitutional principles,” a representative for Combs shared in an email to Rolling Stone. “The filing asks the appellate court to vacate the sentence and order immediate release, or alternatively to reverse the convictions or remand for lawful resentencing limited strictly to the offenses of conviction.”
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In addition to the sentencing appeal, the document presents “a separate and independent basis for overturning Combs’s convictions,” arguing that his First Amendment rights were violated by the district court “as a consumer of the sexual performances that took place during freak-offs and hotel nights.” Combs’s attorneys claim he was “an observer and producer,” but did not have sex with those present and involved in the videos he filmed.
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Judge Subramanian previously stated, “At some point, illegal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected activity just by the desire to watch it.” In the appeal filing, this statement is quoted with attorneys adding the comment, “whatever that means.”
Combs, 56, has been in custody since his September 2024 arrest. In October 2025, he was transferred to the New Jersey federal prison FCI Fort Dix. His projected release date is May 8, 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Combs’ defense initially asked for no more than 14 months, which would have been well below the federal probation department’s recommended range of 70 to 87 months, or around six to seven years.
