Sean “Diddy” Combs has notched a small victory and will be able to wear his own clothes Friday for his sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian handed down the order on Tuesday, Sept. 30, granting a request by the music mogul’s legal team that he be allowed to wear “non-prison clothing” to court on Oct. 3.
“He is permitted to have one button down shirt, one pair of pants, one sweater, and one pair of shoes without laces to wear to court,” Subramanian wrote in the order obtained by Urban Hollywood 411.
Related: Diddy Denied Request for New Trial or Acquittal
The judge said the mogul’s clothes are to be delivered to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.
The decision came after defense attorney Teny Geragos filed documents with the court asking that Combs be allowed to dress in regular clothes, like he did for his trial.
Diddy Wants to Address Judge
Geragos also informed the court that Combs would like to make a statement before he is sentenced.
“The sentencing proceeding holds significant importance for Mr. Combs,” Geragos wrote. “He wishes to appear before the Court, address Your Honor, and allocute in the most dignified and respectful fashion possible.”
The mogul did not testify during his trial, so this would be his first opportunity to address the alleged victims.
Battle Over “Mia”
In another development, the defense and the prosecution filed dueling motions over whether Combs’ former assistant, who testified under the alias “Mia,” will be allowed to make a five-minute victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing.
Mia testified at trial that Combs was a horrible boss, who allegedly sexually abused her, made her work around the clock, and threw a computer at her head in front of music producer Swizz Beatz. The defense countered that she was a troubled employee.
She is among several accusers who sent letters to the judge asking him to hand down the maximum sentence, including his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura-Fine.
Cassie Writes Powerful Letter
Cassie filed her letter on Tuesday, detailing the abuse she said she suffered during her nearly 11-year relationship with Combs.
“If there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it is that victims and survivors will never be safe. Although I can hope for justice and accountability, I have come to not trust anything,” she wrote.
The R&B singer and model, who testified for four days in May while she was nearly nine months pregnant, wrote a 3-page letter to the judge calling the time she was with Combs the “most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life.”
She told the judge she is terrified about what Combs will do if he is released.
“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality. 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,” she wrote.
Supporters Call for Leniency
Several of the mogul’s family members, friends, ex-girlfriends, and former employees, and a chaplain wrote the judge asking him to show Combs leniency.
Among those writing letters were his children, his mother, former BET executive Stephen Hill, and rapper Yung Miami, who called Combs a “good man.” Music producer and reality star Stevie J also wrote the judge, and said Combs covered all of the expenses for his father’s funeral, “without being asked.”
The Bad Boy Records founder’s ex-girlfriend Gina Huynh, described as “Victim 3” in the federal indictment also submitted a letter dated Sept. 30, making this the second time she wrote judge Subramanian. In August, Huynh asked him to grant Combs bail, which he denied.
Huynh insisted no one asked her to write this latest letter, but said she wanted her voice “to be heard.”
She told the judge “I was not trafficked,” and said prosecutors pressured her to cooperate.
It should be noted that Huynh did a podcast interview in 2019, alleging Combs beat her, dragged her by her hair, and forced her to terminate a pregnancy.
“He stomped on my stomach really hard — like, took the wind out of my breath,” Huynh alleged. “I couldn’t breathe. He kept hitting me. I was pleading to him, ‘Can you just stop? I can’t breathe.’”
Now, she is voicing support for the music mogul.
“I kindly ask that you consider releasing him back to his family. I understand throughout this process that he has been cooperative and respectful,” she wrote to the judge. “I believe he will continue to be compliant with the court’s conditions upon release.”
Late Tuesday, Judge Subramanian denied the mogul’s request to vacate his two prostitution-related convictions, reiterating he will be sentenced this week.
On July 2, a Manhattan jury acquitted Combs of the most serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges in the case.
But jurors found him guilty on two lesser Mann Act convictions for transporting his ex-girlfriends Cassie and an influencer using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” across state lines for prostitution.
The judge denied his bail request after the verdict, and Combs has been incarcerated at the MDC since his arrest in September 2024.
Prosecutors have asked the judge to sentence him to 135 months — or 11 years and 3 months. But the defense argued in a Sept. 22 sentencing memorandum that he should get 14 months, essentially time served.
“The punishment Mr. Combs has experienced while at the MDC and beyond has already
been extreme,” the defense team wrote. ” And the collateral consequences he has experienced far exceed what the average Mann Act defendant experiences. He has surpassed just punishment for the offense.”
Combs will be sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Friday morning, Oct. 3.
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