Sean Combs made a plea for leniency in a letter to a federal judge on Thursday ahead of his sentencing on prostitution-related charges, writing that he had been “humbled” by the criminal case against him and would “never commit a crime again.”
“This has been the hardest two years of my life, and I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself,” Mr. Combs wrote in the letter, which his lawyers submitted on the eve of his sentencing hearing.
At the conclusion of an eight-week trial this summer, Mr. Combs was acquitted of charges that he sex trafficked two former girlfriends and ran a racketeering conspiracy. But he was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution, charges related to drug-fueled sex marathons involving his girlfriends and hired male escorts, which were known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”
“In my life, I have made many mistakes, but I am no longer running from them,” he wrote. “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.”
It was the first time Mr. Combs, who is known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, has made any substantial statement about his case.
In the letter, Mr. Combs apologized for physically abusing Casandra Ventura, one of the women at the center of the government’s case, who testified about his repeated beatings over their decade-long relationship. “I literally lost my mind,” Mr. Combs wrote. “I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved.”
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The post Sean Combs Asks Judge for Mercy: ‘I Lost My Way’ appeared first on New York Times.
