Sean “Diddy” Combs has made an emotional last-minute plea for leniency, telling the judge overseeing his case that 13 months behind bars have completely changed him.
According to Linda Ikeji Blog, in a four-page letter submitted Thursday, just hours before his Friday sentencing, the disgraced music mogul apologized for his past, saying he’s “been humbled and broken to my core.”
He now faces up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty in July on two prostitution charges.
Writing to Judge Arun Subramanian, Combs issued direct apologies to his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and another woman who testified as “Jane,” admitting he became “lost in the drugs and the excess.”
“I literally lost my mind… I’m sorry for that and always will be. My domestic violence will always be a heavy burden that I will forever carry,” he wrote to Cassie.
He described his downfall as rooted in selfishness and said jail gave him clarity. “The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn.”
Combs revealed he’s been sober for the first time in 25 years and has spent time teaching fellow inmates about business.
He’s asking for a second chance, not just for himself, but for his seven children and his 84-year-old mother, who recently had brain surgery.
But Combs’ accusers aren’t buying it. Cassie wrote her own letter to the judge, urging him not to show mercy.
“I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up,” she said, calling him “a cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man” with no real interest in change.
Prosecutors agree. They’re pushing for at least 11 years, calling Combs “unrepentant” and arguing that he’s trying to reframe “decades of abuse as simply the function of mutually toxic relationships.”
“But there is nothing mutual about a relationship where one person holds all the power and the other ends up bloodied and bruised,” they wrote.
At the 10 a.m. ET sentencing hearing, Combs is expected to address the court in person alongside four of his lawyers. His defense team also plans to show a mysterious 15-minute video.
His lawyers are asking for a sentence light enough to see him walk free later this month. Prosecutors want him locked up for over a decade.
