Diddy sentencing live updates: Sean Combs expected to speak as prison fate looms for prostitution-related charges

The defense has responded to a “teaching engagement” Diddy was arranged to speak at in Miami next week, which the prosecution described as “the height of hubris,” given he is facing years in prison.

An event in Miami was slated for October 6, next week.

It was not a “speaking engagement,” according to Steel, but a “healing for Sean as well as the community.”

Another defense attorney is set to address this further soon, according to Steel.

More court sketches have landed from inside the sentencing.

They show Diddy wearing glasses, sat between several of his defense team.

Sean “Diddy” Combs was nearly stabbed in prison by another inmate, according to his defense attorney.

Combs has been in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in September 2024 and has become “a trophy” among inmates, according to defense attorney Brian Steel.

“The guards stopped a person who was armed with a shank who was on top of Sean and about to cut him,” Steele said.

Diddy “does not need any additional time in custody,” his defense attorney argued. “That is not the way we treat” drug addiction today, he added.

Steele said that the disgraced rapper has “punished himself more than anyone will be able to punish him.”

“It will stay with him for the rest of his days,” he said.

Diddy was “high every single day” after his best friend, Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, was murdered in 1997, his attorney said.

After the murder, Diddy got hooked on painkillers following a medical procedure, said defense attorney Brian Steel said.

“He was medicating because his body was hurt and his emotions were hurt. But he never stopped working. And all of that, the drug addiction and the trauma — untreated, your honor — caused him to hit, on occasion… the woman he loved.”

He added that Diddy is “haunted” by the violence he inflicted on his victims and remembers “every strike.”

“Sean wants nothing for himself,” Steele added. “This sentence today is not about him. He wants to get back to his family, for them.”

Diddy has already given a glimpse of what he could say in his anticipated address to the court.

On the eve of his sentencing, he said in a four-page letter to the judge that he is a new man after realizing that he was “broken to my core” and wondering at times if he was better off dead.

“Over the past year there have been so many times that I wanted to give up,” Combs wrote. “There have been some days I thought I would be better off dead. The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn. Prison will change you or kill you – I choose to live.”

Combs wrote that the last two years have been the hardest of his life, adding: “And I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself.”

He continued: “In my life, I have made many mistakes, but I am no longer running from them. I am so sorry for the hurt that I caused, but I understand that the mere words ‘I’m sorry’ will never be good enough as these words alone cannot erase the pain from the past.”

While he made references to the horrifying assault he inflicted upon ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, and apologized to “Jane,” another victim of his years-long abuse, the letter was mostly about himself.

Court has resumed for the afternoon and we’re now hearing from Diddy’s defense lawyer, Brian Steel, who is talking about the mogul’s “untreated trauma.”

He says the trauma, coupled with Diddy’s “ferocious drug addiction,” has contributed to his misconduct.

Steel tells the judge about the impact the murder of Diddy’s father had on him when he was just three years old, which the rapper mentioned in his own letter to the judge.

After his father was murdered, Steel told the judge how Diddy’s uncle overdosed on drugs a few years later in an addiction that “later in life would haunt also Sean.”

The attorney, the third of five defense lawyers to speak on behalf of Diddy, calls his client “the hardest working person that I have ever known.”

Court sketches have just dropped and show Diddy looking emotional as he listened to his children speak in his defense.

• It’s been a tense morning so far at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in Manhattan
• The prosecution is seeking a more lengthy sentence of 11 years and 3 months from Judge Arun Subramanian, while the defense argues Diddy should receive a maximum of 14 months
• The judge has signaled that Diddy is likely to receive somewhere between 5 and 7 years in prison for the two prostitution-related charges, which he said was “appropriate” and in line with recommendations in the pre-sentencing report
• The prosecution revealed that Diddy is booked for “teaching engagements” in Miami as soon as next week, which prosecutor Christy Slavik said was “the height of hubris” given he is facing years in prison
• Prosecutors argued that Diddy has not accepted responsibility for his actions
• The defense, meanwhile, has tried to portray Diddy in a positive light
• Diddy’s children shared emotional statements with the judge, with his daughter Jessie Combs, 18, breaking down in tears
• Son Christian Combs begged the judge: “Please let my father out”
• Listening to his children speak, Combs wiped away tears from his eyes and appeared visibly emotional
• The defense played a video to the court, which showed Diddy interacting with his children, opening his charter schools and tending to Kim Porter, the mother of four of his children, on her deathbed
• This afternoon, we are due to hear from more people who will speak in defense of Diddy, before the mogul is expected to make his own case

Diddy was visibly emotional, burying his face in his hand and wiping his eyes as his children spoke, Kelly Rissman reports from court.

The twins, in particular, were very moving. Both broke down in tears as they spoke.

When 18-year-old Jessie Combs started speaking, Diddy grabbed the back of his head and looked down, covering his face, as if evoking heartache for his child.

The video played like a highlight reel of his life, mostly showing clips of children’s birthdays, opening his charter schools, and attending to Kim Porter on her deathbed.

The music in the background, paired with clips of him speaking, was reminiscent of a video played at a concert before the show begins.