By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Key witnesses against Sean “Diddy” Combs, including longtime ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, are urging a federal judge to reject leniency for the hip-hop mogul at his sentencing Friday, saying they fear for their safety if he is freed.
Prosecutors included letters from R&B singer Cassie, her parents and four others with a written submission Tuesday as they seek to have Combs sentenced to at least 11 years and 3 months in prison for his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.
Notably absent was the voice of an ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym Jane. Like Cassie, she said Combs subjected her over several years to dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances with male sex workers that Combs watched and often filmed.
Late Tuesday, Judge Arun Subramanian denied Combs’ request to have his conviction overturned, rejecting his lawyers’ argument that he was an amateur pornographer — not engaging in prostitution — and that the guilty verdict violates his First Amendment rights.
“Illegal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected activity,” Subramanian wrote. He called Combs’ filming “incidental,” pointing to trial evidence that showed he didn’t typically give notice or ask for consent for filming, as a film producer would.
Some who submitted letters expressed disappointment that a jury exonerated Combs, 55, of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have put him behind bars for life, leaving him convicted of two lesser Mann Act charges stemming from interstate commerce related to prostitution.
“If there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it is that victims and survivors will never be safe,” wrote Cassie, who testified for four days at Combs’ trial, describing numerous assaults that left her bruised and traumatized.
She said she was 19 years old when Combs “used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse.”
A former personal assistant who testified under the pseudonym “Mia” that Combs raped her in 2010 asked Subramanian to dispense a sentence “that takes into account the ongoing danger my abuser poses to me, and to others.”
“The defendant’s wealth, power, and fame should not place him above the law,” she said.
Ex-Combs employee Capricorn Clark, who testified that a gun-waving Combs forced her to join him when he broke into Rapper Kid Cudi ‘s home in 2011, suggested he’d benefit from spending time in prison.
“The last ray of light is that you provide justice to us,” she told the judge. “I truly believe that serving more time will save Puff’s life, as time away from his money, drugs, and power is the only punishment he will recognize.”
Stylist Deonte Nash said he doesn’t expect Combs to be in jail forever but was “praying for a sentence that allows the victims to heal and encourages Mr. Combs to genuinely change.”
Combs’ “has left a long trail of victims, many of whom still live in fear,” Nash wrote.
Jourdan-Cha’Taun Atkinson, Combs’ personal chef from 2007 to 2010, said she was set to testify but prosecutors pulled her at the last minute. She said federal agents served her a subpoena in March 2024 and Combs knew about it within two weeks, offering to cover her legal fees.
“I was extremely terrified,” she wrote. “Because how did Sean Combs even know I was contacted?”
Calling for the maximum sentence, she said she knew Combs “to be a very dangerous, and spiteful man. With a long memory, and a panache for payback.”
Combs’ lawyers have asked for no more than 14 months in prison, which would free him almost immediately. They argue that Combs has suffered enough during his nearly 13 months in a Brooklyn federal lockup.
Combs has become a changed man in jail, they said. He’s been under constant suicide watch and has learned to react calmly to threats, even when confronted with a shiv. They said Combs has realized that his overuse of drugs, some prescribed by doctors, had contributed to his violence.
Cassie wrote that she has daily nightmares and flashbacks and requires psychological care to cope.
“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality,” Cassie said. “I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.