The Second Circuit heard oral argument April 9 on Sean Combs' challenge to his Mann Act conviction and 50-month sentence, focusing on whether acquitted conduct influenced the sentence.
Attorneys for Sean "Diddy" Combs urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on April 9 to vacate his July 2025 conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and to set aside the 50-month sentence that followed [1]. The argument marked the first appellate test of both the conviction and the sentencing methodology applied by the district court.
Combs was convicted in the Southern District of New York following a trial before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian [1]. The jury acquitted Combs on the most serious charges, including sex trafficking counts, but returned guilty verdicts on the two Mann Act transportation counts [1]. Judge Subramanian then imposed the 50-month term, a sentence that defense counsel Alexandra Shapiro told the Second Circuit panel was the highest ever handed down for a Mann Act defendant at the same base offense level under the federal Sentencing Guidelines [1].
Shapiro's central substantive argument focused on the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing. She contended that Judge Subramanian functioned as, in her framing, a "thirteenth juror" by factoring in allegations of coercion and violent acts tied to the charges on which the jury had acquitted Combs, and that doing so violated established limits on judicial sentencing discretion [1]. The acquitted-conduct issue sits at a persistent fault line in federal sentencing law. Although the Supreme Court has declined to categorically prohibit sentencing courts from weighing uncharged or acquitted conduct, the practice remains contested, and a Second Circuit ruling that narrows its permissible scope would carry binding weight across the circuit's district courts and could reverberate in other circuits [1]. Prosecutors from the DOJ's SDNY office defended the sentence, arguing that courts may legitimately consider the manner in which an offense was committed, including conduct the jury did not formally find proven beyond a reasonable doubt [1].
The appeal carries significance beyond Combs personally. A ruling favorable to the defense on the acquitted-conduct question could affect pending federal sentencing disputes across the Second Circuit and supply ammunition to defendants in other circuits seeking to limit judicial reliance on conduct a jury rejected [1]. Several civil actions against Combs remain pending and could be influenced by how the appellate court characterizes the underlying conduct [1].
The Second Circuit took the matter under submission after oral argument [1]. No timeline for a decision has been publicly announced.