Sean “Diddy” Combs lost his second bid to be released from jail after a judge ruled Monday the hip-hop mogul failed to prove he wasn’t a flight risk or a danger to the community.
“Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears,” Judge Arun Subramanian ruled Monday. “(‘At trial, the defense conceded the defendant’s violence in his personal relationships. . . . This type of violence, which happens behind closed doors . . . is impossible to police with conditions.’). On this basis alone, Combs’ application is denied.”
The 55-year-old has been trying to secure his release from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) since last month, when a New York jury acquitted him on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Although the Bad Boy founder was cleared of charges that could have seen him facing up to life in prison, Combs was found guilty on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, resulting in his continued detention until his sentencing on Oct. 3.
Combs’ attorneys argued the father-of-seven should be with his family in the interim. Last week, they renewed their request for bail, saying there were exceptional conditions for his release. In a kitchen sink-style approach, his defense team offered a $50 million bail package, raised issues about unfit conditions at MDC, and argued against the Mann Act statute he was charged with. In a separate motion, they asked the judge to set aside Combs’ conviction or be retried on the prostitution charges alone.
But Subramanian rejected all of these arguments. “While Combs may contend at sentencing that this evidence should be discounted and that what happened was nothing more than a case of willing ‘swingers’ utilizing the voluntary services of escorts for their mutual pleasure, the Government takes the opposite view: that Cassie Ventura and Jane were beaten, coerced, threatened, lied to, and victimized by Combs as part of their participation in these events,” Subramanian wrote. “That makes this case unlike any of the cases Combs points to and places it outside the narrow exception to detention that Congress otherwise deemed mandatory.”
Subramanian also noted that Combs’ attorneys have admitted that MDC officials have kept “him safe and attend[ed] to his needs, even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate.” (Rolling Stone has reached out Combs’ representatives for more information on the incident.)
Over the weekend before the judge’s ruling, Combs’ attorneys reemphasized their bid for bail and tried to reassure the judge’s initial concern about Combs’ longstanding history of violence. Apart from a lone, isolated incident with his ex-girlfriend “Jane” in June 2024, Combs’ attorneys claimed he has not been violent with anyone following the end of his relationship with Ventura in 2018.
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But prosecutors rebutted that assertion in a response last week, listing specifics on why the claim was “simply not true” in a redacted paragraph. It wasn’t clear precisely what alleged incidents prosecutors were referring to in their letter. Still, it appeared it pertained to Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Gina Huynh, who over the weekend submitted a letter to the judge to advocate for Combs’ release.
Although Huynh was not called as a witness by the government, she played a significant role in Combs’ eight-week trial. Initially, it was believed Huynh — who has been in an on-off relationship with Combs since 2014 and was referred to as Victim-3 in the indictment — would be called to testify. However, weeks before the trial, prosecutors admitted they were having trouble getting in touch with Huynh, ultimately conceding that she was “out” of the trial.
Still, Huynh’s name continually popped up during the course of witness testimony. Both Ventura and Jane acknowledged Combs’ not-so-secret dalliance with Huynh, saying it caused problems in their respective relationships. There were accusations that Combs was also violent with Huynh. Combs’ assistant, George Kaplan, said he once saw Combs hurling decorative apples at Huynh. And in October 2015, Combs’ former head of security warned Combs that he could go to jail if word leaked about an apparent violent incident between the pair.
Even before Combs’ criminal trial, Huynh herself alleged that Combs had been violent with her, allegedly shoving her to the ground, dragging her by the hair, and stomping on her stomach during a fight in 2018. But Huynh’s letter to the judge didn’t touch on any specifics of her previous claims, only acknowledging that they “experienced ups and downs.”
“Mistakes were made, but he was willing to acknowledge his mistakes and make better decisions in the future,” Huynh wrote. “Over the years that followed, he made visible efforts to become a better person and to address the harm he had caused. By the time our relationship ended, he embodied an energy of love, patience and gentleness that was markedly different from his past behavior. To my knowledge, he has not been violent for many years, and he has been committed to being a father first.”
The judge’s decision comes on the heels of Combs using his high-powered defense team and influential connections to try and put his criminal trial behind him. He is hoping for a minimum sentence, no more than 27 months with credit for the 11 months that he’s already served. (Prosecutors claim Combs should face at least 51 months behind bars, per sentencing guidelines.)
That’s if Combs serves any more time at all. His team is exploring all options, including appeals and even a presidential pardon. Last week, Rolling Stone reported that Combs’ allies have ramped up their efforts in lobbying President Trump for a pardon, feeling emboldened by his partial acquittal. Members of Combs’ camp have approached people close to the Trump administration and floated paying large sums of money if they agreed to help with a potential Trump pardon, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
From Rolling Stone US
