As he waits to find out if a federal judge will send him home to be with his family or condemn him to years in federal prison, Sean “Diddy” Combs made an appeal for freedom in an 11-minute video his legal team released overnight.
The highly-produced video portrays Combs as a loving father, successful businessman, and philanthropist using his wealth to help small businesses, and uplift the Black community.
“When we come together as a people, nothing can stop us,” Combs says in the video.
The Bad Boy Records founder is shown mourning his late ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, speaking to school children in Harlem, delivering a commencement speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C., donating to charitable foundations, and launching the Revolt network, which cut ties with him amid his legal troubles.
“Revolt is one of the only Black-owned networks. We have to own something, have something that’s ours,” he says.
Related: ‘Unrepentant’ Diddy Should Get 11-Year Sentence, Prosecutors Say
Combs insists to continue uplifting others, he needs his freedom.
“What I want to do with my freedom is make sure that I can make change,” he states.
What the video does not show is the aftermath of the deadly 1991 City College stampede, or the 1999 New York City nightclub shooting — for which he was acquitted of weapons charges — or the 2016 video of him kicking and dragging ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura-Fine down the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.
The sentencing video — which will be shown in court — was released hours after the music mogul sent a four-page letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asking for a “second chance.”
“First and foremost, I want to apologize and say how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused others by my conduct. I take full responsibility and accountability for my past wrongs,” he began. “This has been the hardest 2 years of my life, and I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself.”
The mogul added in the letter obtained by Urban Hollywood 411 that he’s made “many mistakes,” including physically attacking Cassie in the hotel hallway after a “freak off” sex session.
“The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily. I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved. I’m sorry for that and always will be,” he said.
Combs initially denied ever assaulting Cassie when she filed her civil lawsuit against him in November 2023, alleging sexual assault, battery and trafficking. He later issued an apology on Instagram after the video was leaked.
During his criminal trial, it was revealed that he paid $100,000 cash to a security guard to make sure the surveillance video was never released. A second security guard testified that he secretly recorded a copy of the footage with his phone to show to his wife. In 2024, the footage ended up on CNN.
Combs’ legal team fought unsuccessfully to prevent the video from being introduced in his trial, and even claimed CNN “altered” the footage by using “free software.”
After spending the past 13 months jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, Combs revealed in his letter that he is now “sober for the first time in 25 years.”
He insisted he has been working on himself, addressing his “anger issues,” and “taking positive steps toward healing.”
With his future hanging in the balance, the rapper, producer, fashion designer and beverage mogul asked the judge “for mercy” to take care of his seven children, and his ailing 84-year-old mother.
“I would ask Your Honor to make me an example of what a person can do if afforded a second chance,” he stated. “If you allow me to go home to my family, I promise I will not let you down and I will make you proud.”
The letter was in sharp contrast to the one Ventura wrote the judge earlier this week, which said Diddy will never change. [Her letter can be read here]
The R&B singer and model described the nearly 11 years she spent with him as the “most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life.”
She told the judge he is violent, abusive, vindictive, and should be given the maximum sentence.
After suing the mogul, obtaining a $20 million civil settlement, and testifying against him at trial, Ventura said she lives in constant fear.
“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality,” she wrote. “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.”
On July 2, a Manhattan jury found Combs guilty on two Mann Act counts for transporting people across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. While he was acquitted of the most serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges, he still faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the prostitution convictions.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him to 135 months — or 11 years and 3 months. But the defense argued he should get 14 months, essentially time served.
The music mogul’s future is now in the hands of the judge. His sentencing hearing began this morning at 10 a.m. ET in Manhattan federal court.
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