Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs have notified a US federal court of their plans to appeal the rap mogul’s conviction and 50-month prison sentence.
They filed a notice of appeal on Monday and are expected to submit the formal documents soon.
Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and acquitted on two other charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Judge Arun Subramanian said that a substantial sentence was needed to send a message that abuse of women “is met with real accountability”.
He also issued Combs a $500,000 (£374,000) fine and five years of probation.
Combs had asked for a 14-month sentence that would have seen him released soon after the trial ended due to time spent in jail while awaiting trial, but prosecutors sought more than 11 years.
At his sentencing hearing in September, Combs told a judge: “My actions were disgusting, shameful, and sick.”
“I got lost in excess, I got lost in my ego,” he said.
He begged the judge for “mercy” and apologised to two of the women who testified against him.
His legal team signalled they would appeal both Combs’ conviction and the judge’s sentence.
Combs was arrested in September 2024 and his nearly two-month trial this summer drew international media attention.
Prosecutors accused him of using his powerful position in the music industry to run what amounted to a sex trafficking operation, and coercing his girlfriends to participate in so-called “freak-offs” with male escorts.
Much of the case centred on his relationship with the singer Cassandra Ventura, who alleged Combs physically abused her and forced her to engage in “hotel nights” with male escorts.
Another woman, who testified under the pseudonym Jane, said she felt pressured to participate in similar encounters even if she was unwell.
A jury found Combs not guilty of the two most serious charges – sex trafficking and racketeering. But they did find him guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
By BBC News
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