Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request for a new trial or an acquittal in his federal case has been denied, just ahead of his sentencing on Friday.

Judge Arun Subramanian declared in a filing on Tuesday evening that the court was not persuaded by arguments made for either potential outcome in his case. Combs’ counsel argued that his recordings of sex acts with male escorts were technically amateur pornography, which they said was protected under the First Amendment. They also claimed that he deserved a new trial because his RICO and sex trafficking counts should not have been joined together with his Mann Act counts, which they say prejudiced the jury against him on the latter charges.

In his ruling, Subramanian stated that Combs failed to carry his “heavy burden” of showing spillover prejudice to

See Full Page