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A federal judge has held Tory Lanez in contempt of court on the eve of trial in a civil lawsuit filed by Megan Thee Stallion – a move that came after the singer said: “I’m a millionaire. I don’t care.”
In a ruling Sunday evening, the judge said that Lanez (Daystar Peterson) – currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan in 2020 – had behaved so poorly during three different depositions that he must now pay a $20,000 fine.
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According to U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid, that’s an outcome Tory already shrugged off during the most recent debacle: “When told his behavior could result in contempt of court and sanctions consisting of fines and additional jail time, Mr. Peterson then said, ‘whatever the fines are, I’ll pay them. I’m a millionaire. I don’t care’.”
The ruling came a day before the start of a jury trial in a civil lawsuit Megan filed last year against social media personality Milagro Gramz (Milagro Cooper). The star claims Gramz waged a “coordinated campaign” with Lanez to “defame and delegitimize” her in the wake of the shooting.
In addition to the monetary fine, the judge also said that jurors in that trial should be told about Lanez’s refusal to answer questions about whether he ever communicated with Gramz – an unwelcome development for her defense attorneys.
Lanez was convicted in December 2022 on three felony counts for shooting Megan in the foot in July 2020 during an argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. In August 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His appeal of the verdict and sentence was denied last week.
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Last year, Megan filed her civil lawsuit against Gramz, calling her a “mouthpiece and puppet” for Lanez who had been “churning out falsehoods” about the criminal case on his behalf: “Enough is enough,” her lawyers wrote at the time.
Unsurprisingly, Lanez is a key witness in that lawsuit, and Megan’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to depose him from prison. But each time, the singer has disrupted the proceedings and refused to answer questions; Megan’s lawyers have said he’s “made a mockery of the proceedings.”
In her ruling on Sunday, Judge Reid echoed those claims. She said Megan’s lawyers had been “unable to ask more than two questions before Mr. Peterson stormed out of the room.” The judge said Tory later made “derogatory comments” and hurled “multiple expletives” toward Megan’s lawyers and never answered any questions.
Lanez’s attorney, Crystal Morgan, also drew the judge’s ire. Judge Reid said she had objected to questions that were “clearly relevant” during the brief deposition, and had engaged in “coaching the witness.” The judge ordered her to pay $5,000 as her fine.
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Cardi B’s lawyers are firing back at a “baseless” demand for a new trial in the failed assault case filed by Emani Ellis — including the accuser’s suggestion that Cardi “intimidated” jurors by throwing a pen at a reporter on the courthouse steps.
Ellis is seeking a re-do after jurors easily rejected her civil lawsuit claiming Cardi B (Belcalis Almánzar) assaulted her during an altercation at a Los Angeles doctor’s office in 2018. But in a response filed in court Wednesday (Nov. 12), Cardi’s lawyers said the idea of a second trial should be “rejected out of hand.”
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“Plaintiff Emani Ellis’ motion for new trial is entirely frivolous,” Cardi’s attorneys write. “She fails to establish any permitted grounds for a new trial. Instead, she repeats her counsel’s accusations of misconduct that are both false and not grounds for a new trial.”
In seeking a new trial last month, Ellis’ lawyer cited a viral incident in which Cardi was filmed throwing a pen at someone in a courthouse media scrum after he’d asked a provocative question about her pregnancy. According to Ellis, the disturbance might have been “witnessed by the jury” and could have impacted the trial: “Jurors would be intimidated if they had viewed this type of conduct.”
But in Wednesday’s response, Cardi’s lawyers sharply criticized that argument as hearsay and unfounded guessing — and said that Ellis had never raised it during the actual trial: “Plaintiff’s counsel’s speculation, knowingly false statements, and inaction are not grounds for a new trial,” they wrote.
Ellis’ attorney, Ron Rosen Janfaza, did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday (Nov. 13).
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Ellis sued Cardi in 2020, claiming the star had assaulted her when she worked as a security guard at a Beverly Hills gynecologist’s office in 2018, when Cardi was four months pregnant with her first child. Ellis said the star cursed and spat at her and scratched her cheek with a sharp acrylic nail, requiring plastic surgery to repair the wound.
At an August trial, Cardi said she never touched Ellis. During two days on the witness stand, the rapper testified that she and Ellis had a verbal-only altercation after she realized that the guard was recording her — a major concern, Cardi said, because she was still concealing her pregnancy from the public.
The rapper said it was Ellis who got aggressive during the encounter, backing her into a corner and refusing to leave her alone. Cardi also said her nails weren’t capable of cutting anyone, and the jury saw a photo of her at the NBA All-Star Game the week of this incident, sporting square nails that she described as less than an inch long.
After less than an hour of deliberations, the jury unanimously found that Ellis did not prove her legal claims of assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and negligence. And on the courthouse steps a short while later, Cardi warned against future “frivolous” lawsuits.
“I work hard for my money for my kids and for people I take care of, so don’t you ever think that you gonna sue me, and I’m just gonna settle and just give you my money,” the star said at the time. “It’s not gonna happen.”
In the wake of the verdict, Cardi’s lawyers have asked the judge to punish Rosen Janfaza, Ellis’ attorney, for alleged misconduct during the trial. Seeking so-called sanctions against him, they say he repeatedly violated court orders, including by asking Cardi on the witness stand if she had any gang affiliations despite a ruling that such information was irrelevant to the case.
In his own court filings, Rosen Janfaza has denied breaking any rules willfully, saying he was inexperienced at trial and was “simply asking questions as best he could in an effort to zealously advocate.” But the judge ruled last month that the attorney must now “show cause” why he should not face sanctions. A hearing is currently set for next month.
Separate from the debate over misconduct, Ellis moved for a new trial last month, raising a slew of different arguments. Some were typical of a post-trial motion, like her argument that the verdict was not supported by evidence; others were very much not, like the pen-throwing claim, or an accusation that Rosen Janfaza had had a physical altercation with Cardi’s lawyers in a courthouse hallway.
“All of these actions combined had an affect the outcome of this case,” Ellis’ attorney wrote in that filing. “Plaintiff is entitled to a new trial under the circumstances.”
In Wednesday’s response, Cardi’s lawyers said Ellis’ request for a new trial “does not withstand even cursory review and must be denied.” They also denied any physical encounter, saying that “Mr. Rosen Janfaza provides no elaboration because his accusation is patently false.”
Cardi’s team also repeatedly alluded to the judge’s potential sanctions against Rosen Janfaza — suggesting that his eye-catching claims in seeking a new trial were “just another gratuitous attempt” by him to “besmirch defense counsel” and “distract” from the looming possible punishment order.
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An appeals court has upheld Tory Lanez’s convictions for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, rejecting his arguments aimed at overturning his 10-year prison sentence.
Nearly three years after the singer (Daystar Peterson) was found guilty in 2022 of shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument on a Hollywood Hills street, a California appellate court affirmed the verdict in a ruling issued Wednesday (Nov. 12).
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Lanez and his supporters have long maintained his innocence, claiming there was insufficient proof that he was the shooter and that he received an unfair trial. But in the ruling, the appeals court said there was no reason to undo the verdict.
“Peterson contends the trial court committed a number of errors,” the appeals court wrote. “We find no prejudicial error and, accordingly, affirm Peterson’s conviction.” A spokeswoman for Lanez did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
The ruling came more than five years after the July 12, 2020, shooting, which happened as a driver was shuttling Lanez, Megan and her assistant/friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, when Megan got out of a vehicle and began walking away, Lanez shouted “Dance, b—h!” and fired a gun at her feet, striking her once.
Following the incident, Megan initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.
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During a blockbuster trial in Los Angeles court, Lanez’s lawyers tried to sow doubt over who had really pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Megan herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her, and neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.
Lanez and his supporters have refused to accept that verdict, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.” His legal team has filed multiple forms of appeal to challenge the verdict, each of which has now been rejected. They have also claimed publicly that new evidence exonerates him; Megan’s reps and prosecutors strongly deny that.
On appeal, Lanez raised a slew of arguments. He argued it had been unfair for jurors to hear the earlier interview with Harris, in which she placed the blame for the shooting on Lanez; he also argued prosecutors had improperly cited an Instagram post in which he appeared to say that Harris had not shot Megan.
In Wednesday’s decision, the appeals court rejected each of those arguments, including Lanez’s claim that prosecutors had “introduced racial bias into the proceedings” by referencing a tattoo of a gun on his chest.
“It was defense counsel who asked — both on direct and on redirect — if [a witness] had ever seen Peterson with a gun,” the appeals court wrote. “Neither of the prosecutors even mentioned Peterson’s tattoos — much less the tattoo of a firearm — in their closing arguments.”
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Since subscribing to Spotify in 2023, Genevieve Capolongo says she’s mostly listened to “lesser-known artists” like Próxima Parada, Julia Cooper and Brusco. But she says the streamer’s recommendation tools keep serving her “mainstream, major-label tracks” by Drake, Zach Bryan and Justin Bieber.
According to her lawyers, that’s because Spotify was paid to do so.
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In a lawsuit filed last week, Capolongo claims the streamer’s Discovery Mode and editorial playlists amount to a “modern form of payola,” allowing labels to secretly boost their tracks with a “deceptive pay-for-play” program. She says she wouldn’t have subscribed if she knew that Spotify’s recommendations had been sold “to the highest bidder.”
The case is sometimes light on specifics, like citing unnamed “industry insiders” about alleged illicit payments or “disproportionate” rates of major-label music. Spotify, for its part, called the lawsuit “nonsense” and said it was “riddled with misunderstandings and inaccuracies.”
But it targets a program that has raised eyebrows for years — and comes at a time when Spotify has faced multiple accusations about manipulation on the platform. For more, go read our full story here.
You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.
Other top stories this week…
DRAKE’S APPEAL – As Drake asks an appeals court to revive his lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” I asked legal experts what his lawyers might argue — and whether it’ll work.
TAYLOR V. TRUMP? – Taylor Swift fans want her to sue the Trump administration after it used “The Fate of Ophelia” in a TikTok video. She probably could, but almost certainly won’t.
DISJOINT VENTURE – 10K Projects, the Warner-owned label founded by Elliot Grainge, is facing a lawsuit claiming it owes millions to Taz Taylor’s Internet Money Records under a joint venture.
FAST & FREE SONGS – How did New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani get clearance to use Bob Dylan’s iconic anthem “The Times They Are A-Changin’” in a campaign ad? It turns out he didn’t.
MJ LITIGATION – Michael Jackson’s estate is locked in a legal battle over abuse allegations from the Cascio siblings, who spent much of their childhoods with the King of Pop.
GORDIAN SLIPKNOT – Slipknot’s lawsuit against a group that has owned slipknot.com for decades has hit an unexpected snag: The shadowy entity has hired a lawyer and is fighting back.
ATLANTA ARREST – Rod Wave was arrested in Atlanta on weapon and drug charges. His lawyer — star defense attorney Drew Findling — says Wave was “unjustly profiled and unlawfully arrested.”
NAME REVEAL? – A “Jane Roe” woman who accused Garth Brooks of sexual assault is refusing to concede defeat in her fight to remain pseudonymous, filing an appeal to avoid disclosing her real name.
NOVEMBER LITIGATION – An ex-manager of Guns N’ Roses is suing the band, claiming it has unfairly blocked the release of his memoir by threatening to sue him and his publisher over a decades-old NDA.
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THE BIG NEWS: Universal Music Group and artificial intelligence music service Udio reached a landmark agreement last week to end their lawsuit – the first major settlement in the battle over the future of AI music. Here’s everything you need to know.
The deal, announced Wednesday, will end UMG’s allegations that Udio broke the law by training its AI models on vast troves of copyrighted songs — an accusation made in dozens of other lawsuits filed against booming AI firms by book authors, news outlets, movie studios and visual artists. The agreement involves both a “compensatory” settlement for past sins and an ongoing partnership for a new, more limited subscription AI service that pays fees to UMG and its artists.
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-The agreement is much more than a legal settlement, Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez told Billboard’s Kristin Robinson in a detailed question-and-answer session just hours after the news broke: “We’re making a new market here, which we think is an enormous one.”
-The deal between UMG and Udio will resolve their legal battle, but broader litigation involving rival AI firm Suno and both Sony Music and Warner Music is still very much pending. Are more settlements coming? Does the deal impact the case? Go read my look-ahead analysis of the ongoing court battle.
-Will AI do more harm than good for the music business? That’s the question Billboard’s Glenn Peoples is asking – and financial analysts don’t have a clear answer. Some believe AI’s negatives outweigh its positives, while others see mostly upside. Maybe it’s just too early to know, Glenn says: “In the near term, expect more deals like UMG’s partnership with Udio. Over the long term, expect to be surprised.”
-Artist advocates are already demanding answers about how exactly this whole thing will work. According to the Music Artists Coalition, talk of “partnership” and “consent” are all well and good, but details are what matter: “We have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music,” MAC founder Irving Azoff said.
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-To put it lightly, Udio subscribers were not big fans of the settlement, which saw the company immediately disable downloads – even for songs that users created long before the deal was reached. After two days of outrage and threats of legal action, Udio said it would open a 48-hour window for users to download their songs. But with wholesale changes to the platform coming soon, will that be enough to satisfy them?
You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.
Other top stories this week…
AINT OVER YET – Drake is now formally appealing last month’s court ruling that dismissed his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” prolonging a messy legal drama that has captivated the music industry and, at times, drawn ridicule in the hip-hop world.
DIDDY APPEAL – Sean “Diddy” Combs is appealing too – and he’ll get a fast-track process to do it. With such cases sometimes lasting years, his lawyers argued that he could be nearly finished with his three-ish year prison sentence by the time an appellate court rules on his prostitution convictions.
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POT SHOTS – Offset is facing a new civil assault lawsuit claiming he punched a security guard in the face at a cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles after being asked to show his I.D., sending the staffer to the emergency room.
MASSIVE FINE – Fugees rapper Pras Michel must forfeit a whopping $64 million to the government following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges, a federal judge says, overruling his protests that it’s “grossly disproportionate.”
DRAKE SUED – Drake and internet personality Adin Ross are facing a class action accusing them of using “deceptive, fraudulent and unfair” practices to promote online sweepstake casino Stake and “encourage impressionable users to gamble,” including using house money to do it.
DRAKE NOT SUED – Another class action, this one against Spotify, claims that the platform has turned a “blind eye” to streaming fraud and allowed billions of fake plays. It alleges that Drake is one of the most-boosted artists, but the rapper is not named as a defendant nor accused of wrongdoing.
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FAIR TRADE? Cam’ron is suing J. Cole over allegations he reneged on a deal to swap featured credits – claiming he provided a verse for Cole’s “Ready ’24” but that Cole repeatedly declined to do the same, or even appear on Killa Cam’s podcast.
CUSTODY TRUCE – Halle Bailey and DDG temporarily agreed to share custody of their son and drop domestic violence claims against each other, putting a halt to the musicians’ messy legal battle after months of back and forth.
NEWJEANS, SAME LABEL – A Korean court issued a ruling rejecting NewJeans’ attempt to break away from its label ADOR, dealing a major victory to the HYBE subsidiary in its closely-watched legal battle with the chart-topping K-pop group.
DEPOSITION DRAMA – A judge says Tory Lanez must sit for a deposition in litigation stemming from his alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. The case was filed by Megan against gossip blogger Milagro Gramz, who she claims spread falsehoods about the shooting.
NOT VERY CASH MONEY – Former Hot Boys member Turk is being sued by a concert promoter over online threats that supposedly threatened to derail a Cash Money Records reunion tour featuring Birdman and Juvenile
UGLY DIVORCE – Sia and her estranged husband are fighting over custody of their child amid divorce proceedings — and the crossfire is getting ugly. Among other claims, he says the pop star is a drug addict who can’t care for a baby, and she says he was investigated over child pornography.
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Fugees rapper Pras Michel must pay a whopping $64 million to the government following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges, a federal judge ruled Thursday (Oct. 30).
The rapper’s lawyers had called such a massive order “grossly disproportionate” to his 2023 conviction, in which Michel was found guilty on accusations that he orchestrated a “foreign influence campaign” to get the U.S. to drop an investigation into fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low.
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But in the ruling on Thursday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said that Michel had “obtained proceeds in the amount of at least $64,923,226 from his offenses,” which included conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an agent of China. The judge’s written opinion explaining her rationale was not made publicly available.
Michel faces sentencing on those same convictions next month, when he could receive a decades-long prison sentence. His attorneys have called for a far lighter sentence of only 36 months. A spokeswoman for Michel did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
Composed of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Michel, the Fugees rose to fame in the 1990s with hits like “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not” and “Fu-Gee-La.” After splitting up in 1998, the three each had successful solo careers and mostly stayed separate until recent years, when they’ve attempted multiple reunion tours.
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In 2019, Michel was hit with sweeping federal criminal charges over accusations that he funneled money from Low, the mastermind of the billion-dollar 1MDB embezzlement scheme, to a lobbying campaign aimed at getting the first Trump administration to drop its investigation into the disgraced financier. He was also accused of secretly funneling Low’s money to Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, and of later trying to influence an extradition case on behalf of China.
In April 2023, following a trial that included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Michel was convicted on 10 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
Thursday’s forfeiture order was delayed by several months after Pras announced in August that he’d had emergency surgery for colon cancer removal. The August hearing was eventually rescheduled for last week, setting the stage for Thursday’s decision.
Following his sentencing next month, Michel will likely appeal both his sentence and the underlying convictions to a higher court.
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THE BIG STORY: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was so big that it has developed its own legal system.
With a record-shattering haul of more than $2 billion face-value ticket sales — and many times that in the secondary market — it’s not surprising that legal disputes have broken out. Don’t forget the old adage in the music industry: “If you write a hit, you get a writ.”
It started immediately after the chaotic pre-sale, when Swift fans filed class actions against Ticketmaster, accusing the company of causing the “disaster” rollout. In August, the Federal Trade Commission sued a ticket broker for allegedly using bots to buy thousands of Eras tickets that it resold for more than $1 million in profit. Just this month, an angry Swiftie sued StubHub for giving her “inferior” seats after she dropped $14,000 on Eras tickets.
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The latest fallout came last week in a criminal case — over a “cybercrime crew” that allegedly stole Eras tickets from StubHub and resold them for a windfall. For more, go read our full story here.
Other top stories this week…
BAND V. LABEL – Powerhouse regional Mexican label Rancho Humilde is locked in a bitter legal dispute with one of its fastest rising acts, the California-based band Fuerza Regida, with allegations of unpaid royalties, unapproved touring deals and “sabotage.”
DIDDY RELEASE DATE – Weeks after Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to over four years in prison on prostitution convictions following a sweeping sexual abuse case, inmate records now show when he’s expected to be set free — but a lot could change before then.
MUNI LAWSUIT – Muni Long’s former managers, Chaka Zulu and Jeff Dixon, are suing the singer for allegedly refusing to pay more than $600,000 worth of promised fees; the Grammy-winning R&B star’s team calls the claims “unfounded.”
BEER BATTLE – Country singer Jameson Rodgers allegedly hurled a “full, unopened beer can” into a concert crowd and hit a fan in the face, resulting in “severe and permanent injuries.” Now, an appeals court says Sony Music can’t escape the ensuing lawsuit.
THE FIGHT GOES ON – Even after A$AP Rocky was acquitted on charges of shooting A$AP Relli on a Hollywood street, the former friends and collaborators continue to battle in a pair of civil lawsuits filed by Relli.
ANTITRUST CASE – Former Oak View Group chief Tim Leiweke, now facing federal bid-rigging charges, is asking a judge for permission to travel to Canada for business next month — a routine motion on paper that underscores how sharply life changes under indictment.
IMPERIAL MARCH – A Washington, D.C., man was allegedly detained after playing John Williams’ legendary “Imperial March” — aka Darth Vader’s music from Star Wars — to protest National Guard troops sent to the city by President Donald Trump, according to a new lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
SAMPLE SPAT – Lizzo is facing a copyright lawsuit over a track she teased on social media to poke fun at Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad controversy, even though she never actually commercially released it.
Source: Justin Goff Photos / Getty
Diddy will have to hear different type of bars for the next couple of years. His release date has been confirmed.
As per Complex Diddy’s release date has been revealed. The online magazine is exclusively reporting that the Bureau of Prisons has confirmed that Bad Boy Entertainment founder is slated to be released May 8, 2028. While that may seem like only two and a half years, the release date includes his time served since he was arrested on Sept. 16, 2024. Diddy was found guilty on two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution. His legal team has expressed dissatisfaction with the judge’s sentencing. According to BBC his lawyers notified the United States Federal Court that they plan to appeal the conviction and 50 month sentence.
Earlier this month President Donald Trump was asked about the rumors that he is considering formally pardoning Diddy. While he confirmed that the disgraced entrepreneur did in fact request for his sentence be commuted by the POTUS, Trump made it clear that the plea isn’t out the ordinary. “A lot of people have asked me for pardons” the politician said. Last week The White House publicly denounced the hearsay that Donald Trump would pardon Diddy via a formal statement. “There is zero truth to the TMZ report, which we would’ve gladly explained had they reached out before running their fake news,” the official told NBC News in a statement. “The President, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons and commutations.”
In recent news Diddy’s friend Charlucci Finney shared with The Daily Mail that the “I Need A Girl” rapper was almost attacked while in jail. “He woke up with a knife to his throat” Finney revealed. “I don’t know whether he fought him off or the guards came, I just know that it happened.” A representative from Metropolitan Detention Center, the facility where Diddy is being housed, has yet to comment on the alleged incident. Between appeals, rumors of pardons, and reports from behind bars, Diddy’s legal saga is far from over.
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Weeks after Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to over four years in prison on prostitution convictions following a sweeping sexual abuse case, inmate records posted by the federal Bureau of Prisons show that Diddy, 55, is now expected to be set free on May 8, 2028.
Combs had already been expected to serve less than the full sentence, thanks to roughly a year of time-served as he sat in jail awaiting his trial and verdict. But the newly-revealed release date would represent an even-earlier release than previously thought — only roughly two years and seven months after his date of sentencing.
Such dates are just estimates, reflecting the “inmate’s projected release date based on BOP calculations.” The earlier-than-expected date could reflect that Combs will serve the final few months of his sentence at a residential reentry center, or halfway house, or his participation in BOP’s drug abuse rehab program, which can sometimes shave months off an inmate’s sentence.
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Reps for Combs did not immediately return a request for comment. Reps for the federal Bureau of Prisons were unavailable for comment, citing the government shutdown.
Once one of the music industry’s most powerful figures, Combs was arrested and charged in September 2024 with racketeering (RICO) and sex trafficking violations. Prosecutors said he ran a sprawling criminal operation aimed at facilitating “freak-offs” — elaborate events which he allegedly forced ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and other women to have sex with male escorts while he watched and masturbated.
Following a blockbuster trial this spring, jurors issued a verdict clearing Combs on the RICO and sex trafficking charges that could have seen him sentenced to prison for life. But he was still convicted on two lesser counts for transporting Ventura and others across state lines for the purposes of prostitution.
At a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced him to 50 months in prison on those convictions. That was far less than the 11 years sought by prosecutors, but well more than the 14 months his lawyers had asked for. Counting his year of time-served credit, that sentence would seemingly have seen the star released at some point in September or October 2028.
Regardless of BOP estimates, Diddy’s release date could change dramatically if he wins his appeal, which he launched last week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His lawyers will challenge not only the length of his sentence, but also his underlying convictions themselves.
If such arguments are successful – read what Diddy’s lawyers might argue here – he could get out even earlier than May 2028. But the appeals process is often slow, and Combs will likely serve a sizeable chunk of his prison term before the case is even decided.
That is, unless he’s pardoned or commuted by President Donald Trump – the other big factor could significantly change his release timeline. Though Trump confirmed that Diddy’s team reached out to the administration about such an edict, the White House has publicly denied that it is considering clemency for the convicted mogul.
The judge overseeing the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking and racketeering trial has been mulling a decision to dismiss one of the jurors over inconsistencies in answering questions and other reported issues. Diddy’s legal team wrote a letter to the judge explaining that if the Black and male juror is dismissed that they would seek a mistrial.
As reported by USA Today, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian told the court that he was moving to remove Juror No. 6 due to what he framed as “several inconsistencies” due to where he lived, adding, “The juror is unable to answer simple questions. There are serious questions about the juror’s candor and ability to follow instructions.”
In a TMZ report, it was revealed that Juror No. 6 was Black, and Diddy’s legal team seized on the opportunity to address the judge’s move and seek a pathway to a mistrial.
From TMZ:
The rapper’s legal team filed a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian Sunday evening … claiming that — while the Court might believe the prosecution’s questions about a juror’s inconsistent answers during voir dire are sincere — the government is just finding pretense to dismiss a juror because of their race.
Adding to this, the defense presented claims that authorities abused their power and used excessive force during the raids of Diddy’s homes, along with alleging that investigators linked sensitive information to the public, presumably, to taint the air of the trial.
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Photo: Pool / Getty
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