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Sean Combs is seeking to be released from jail on a $50 million bond ahead of his Oct. 3 sentencing, following the hip-hop mogul’s acquittal on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Combs’ attorneys filed a 12-page motion asking for Combs’ release, arguing there are “exceptional” circumstances in his case, including that he was unfairly prosecuted for his “swingers” lifestyle and the unfit conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center. (Combs has been held at the Brooklyn facility since his arrest last September.)
The 55-year-old is still facing time in prison after a jury found him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution. The Bad Boy Entertainment founder was accused of hiring male escorts to travel across state lines to have sex with his girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane as he watched.
After a stunning eight-week trial, where more than 30 witnesses testified, Combs thanked the jury and dropped to his knees in relief as he learned he was acquitted of the more serious charges, avoiding a possible life sentence.
After hearing the verdict, his high-powered legal team immediately made a motion for Combs’ release on bond ahead of his sentencing. But U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian swiftly rejected the motion, noting Combs’ attorneys admitted to his violence towards his romantic partners and it was “impossible” for Combs to “demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he poses no danger to any other person or the community.”
Addressing the judge’s concern regarding violence, Combs’ lawyers claimed he has not been violent with anyone following the end of his relationship with Ventura in 2018, apart from a lone prolonged incident with Jane in June 2024 in Los Angeles. (During the trial, Jane testified that she started the fight with Combs, pushing his head into a counter, before he punched, stomped and choked her.)
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“If released on conditions, Sean Combs will not be violent to anyone,” his attorneys wrote. “As we said in court, this jury gave him his life back, and he will not squander his second chance at life, nor would he do anything to further jeopardize his seven children not having a father, and four of his children not having a parent at all. The Court can fashion any set of conditions, and Mr. Combs will abide by any condition, to make the Court comfortable that Mr. Combs will not be violent toward any person.”
As part of his proposed bail package, Combs is offering a $50 million bond secured by his Miami mansion, which is where he’d like to await his sentencing while under supervision of the U.S. Pretrial Services Agency. He is also offering to forfeit his passport and restrict his travel to the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York for attorney meetings.
The judge gave Southern District of New York prosecutors until Thursday to respond to Combs’ motion.
The defense is pushing for Combs to receive a minimum sentence, which they said was between 21 to 27 months. Prosecutors said the sentencing guidelines called for 51 to 63 months imprisonment, noting they’d likely be seeking an even longer incarceration period.
Although Combs is facing a significantly shorter sentence than the life sentence he was facing if he was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, his defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland said Combs was planning on appealing his conviction on the prostitution charges. “We’re not going to be satisfied until he’s home,” she told the New York Times.
From Rolling Stone US
