Sean Combs may not get out of prison until 2028, but the ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ performer has been cut a couple of breaks lately that could make his sentence softer, and perhaps even shorter.
Mere days after Diddy was moved to a low security facility in New Jersey, a federal appeals judge today granted the request of the Grammy winner’s defense team to expedite the process. In a justice system that often moves at a glacial pace, this means the much-accused Combs actually stands a chance of getting out before his 50-month sentence is up.
“Appellant move to expedite the appeal on the following schedule: Appellant’s opening brief and appendix due by December 23, 2025; the Government’s brief due by February 20, 2026; Appellant’s reply brief due by March 13, 2026; and oral argument in April of 2026,” wrote US Circuit Court Judge Beth Robinson Monday, less than a week after Combs’ lawyer Alexandra Shapiro made an unopposed fast-track request.
“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion is GRANTED. Briefing shall proceed on the proposed schedule and argument shall be held as early as April of 2026, subject to the approval of the Presiding Judge,” the two-paragraph and to-the-point ruling said, giving Team Combs (“AKA Puff Daddy, AKA P. Diddy, AKA Diddy, AKA PD, AKA Love”) everything they asked for.
Shapiro did not respond to a request from Deadline today on the judge’s order. Presently set to be released on May 8, 2028, the pardon-seeking Combs on October 3 was handed a four-year sentence, including the time already served in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center from his September 2024 arrest on sex trafficking and racketeer charges.
Along with Judge Arun Subramanian’s additional sentencing conditions of a $500,000 fine (the maximum) and five years of supervised release, the sentence came just under three months after the 55-year-old Combs was found guilty by a NYC jury on July 2 on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. If Combs had been found guilty on the sex trafficking and RICO counts, he likely would have received the equivalent of a life sentence.
The verdict on the lesser charges, with acquittals on the greater charges, was a withering loss for the US Attorneys’ office of the Southern District of New York.
An embarrassment Shapiro made sure to rub a bit of salt into when she said last week that her “freak off” obsessed client’s “appeal will challenge the unfair use of the Mann Act, an infamous statute with a sordid history, to prosecute him for sex with consenting adults.”
Whether or not, Combs’ appeal replicates his string of unsuccessful $50 million bail efforts, or proves a Get Outta Jail card remains to be seen. What we do know is that as of October 30, the once high-livin’ Diddy is in a far better place than the hardcore MDC.
The entrance to Fort Dix, New Jersey. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
As requested, Combs was transferred on October 30 to the relatively low-security Fort Dix FCI in New Jersey.
Diddy is now detained on the joint military base with the likes of ex-NBA star Sebastian Telfair (who was convicted in mid-2023 with over a dozen other players of defrauding the league’s healthcare plan for millions) and around 4,000 other inmates. To that, now at the cushier and deeply resourced joint, Combs may even be able to shave off a few months from his sentence with extra good behavior and successful completion of certain addiction and anger management programs — and that’s before his appeal officially kicks off.
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