Inside The Charges Sean 'Diddy' Combs Is Facing—And How Much Prison Time He Could Face If Convicted
On "Forbes Talks," criminal defense lawyer Lauren Johnson Norris discussed the charges faced by Sean "Diddy" Combs, how much prison time he might face should be convicted.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, everyone. I'm Maggie McGrath with Forbes Breaking News. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was
00:08arrested in New York City on Monday. And today, Tuesday, the U.S. attorney for the Southern
00:14District of New York unsealed the charges against Combs, and they include trafficking
00:19and racketeering and more. Here to break this down for us is Lauren Johnson Norris. She
00:26is a criminal defense lawyer and the founder of the Johnson Criminal Law Group. Lauren,
00:32thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. So let's start broad. How did we
00:39get here? What is the background and the context we all need to know to understand this case?
00:45Well, over the last almost two decades, Sean Combs appears to have been involved in a criminal
00:52enterprise, bringing women to parties and using force and violence and guns to not
00:58only benefit himself, but as part of his business model. We saw in the last couple years that
01:06lawsuits have been filed, and I think it's that window that New York opened for civil
01:11lawsuits in 2023 that really brought in the floodgates of allegations against him. We
01:18started hearing rumors about his proclivities and sort of his behavior over the years, but
01:25it was only until these lawsuits were filed that multiple alleged victims came forward.
01:31Many of those cases were settled, but I think those facts are underlying what's being criminally
01:36prosecuted here. Interesting. So it took those victims coming forward basically for the law
01:42to build a case against him and then arrest him yesterday and unseal the charges today.
01:47Is that correct? It is. And what's interesting is New York opened a period of time for people
01:52to file old claims that might have otherwise been excluded under the statute of limitations.
01:58And when they opened that window, these lawsuits came in alleging conduct from over a decade
02:03ago, though it appears that Combs was involved from 2008 until even last year, some of the
02:11conduct that's been alleged. But yeah, I think it was that window and those civil suits that
02:15brought the U.S. attorney the evidence that they needed. So let's break down the charges.
02:20The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed three big charges today.
02:26What are they? What do we need to know about them? So the first allegation is that there's
02:31a criminal enterprise. And what that means is that Combs used his business to conduct
02:35illegal activities. When we hear that with a conspiracy, that means that there are other
02:39people involved, though he's the only person that's been charged at this time. I know the
02:44Department of Justice is saying that perhaps there will be others they can't commit at
02:47this point. The investigation is ongoing. But there's also allegations that involve
02:53sex trafficking and using violence in order to compel people to commit, you know, acts
03:00of sex at his force and coercion, using violence and threats and even arson. And that obviously
03:07is something that is precluded by law. And they also allege racketeering. And that also
03:12relates to the RICO statute to the conspiracy. They're allowed to bring these charges under
03:19that statute as well. So all of this appears to have been a criminal enterprise using force
03:24and violence, drugging, arson and other criminal acts to get people to be trafficked.
03:32I was going to say you mentioned RICO, which I feel like we normally hear about in a business
03:36context and not in a sexual violence context. But what we have here just to zoom out a little
03:41bit is not just sexual violence, but allegations of a business around sexual violence.
03:49That's what it sounds like. Sometimes when we think of RICO, we think of mobsters or
03:53other, you know, in a financial setting. But it looks like here they're using the statute
03:58as a way to look at this enterprise being one of trafficking, human trafficking.
04:04And I know it's still early in the legal proceedings here, but what is the punishment that Sean
04:09Diddy Combs faces for these charges if he were to be convicted?
04:14Sure. The most serious punishment that exposes him to life is using sexual assault or violence
04:21or force on someone who's being trafficked. And so ultimately, these charges could result
04:27in him facing a life sentence. A life sentence in prison.
04:31Wow. Well, that's correct. Yeah. I mean, the course
04:34of conduct over a decade with multiple victims and the level and scale of violence used to
04:40commit these crimes is under the under the code allows that.
04:46Now there was some reporting that emerged today from TMZ that the feds intended to arrest
04:51Combs today on Tuesday, but instead moved up the arrest by a day to yesterday based
04:57on some new information. What does that suggest to you as an attorney with experience and
05:04criminal defense? Does this signal that he was perhaps going to escape?
05:08Well, that's certainly the question I think that folks would ask. And having looked at
05:13the detention letter that justice sent over to the court asking for him to be detained,
05:19it certainly appears that there are elements of flight risk that are at issue here. We
05:24also see that they allege that he may be dissuading witnesses and obstructing the case. And so
05:31whenever that's happening, the government's going to want to curtail that and make sure
05:35that this person can't harm their case any further than they may have already done.
05:41You say obstruct. So could there be additional charges for obstruction of justice?
05:46Well, it appears that there can be. And what they've alleged in the detention letter is
05:52that Combs has already contacted witnesses and victims and made an effort to dissuade
05:57them from testifying, providing them with false narratives. So if they can prove that
06:03and there's evidence to support that, potentially additional charges could be filed.
06:08So the arrest was yesterday. The unsealing of the charges was today. What happens next?
06:13Will there be a trial? And if so, when?
06:16Well, first he will face the court and the question about whether or not he'll be detained
06:21will be at issue. So that's where that memo came into play. Will he be in custody while
06:25this case is pending or will the court allow him to remain out of custody with conditions?
06:31And then there's a large process of exchanging evidence and looking at the evidence that the
06:35court has. The defense's job is to evaluate all of that, to interview witnesses and put together
06:40its defense, whatever that might be in this case. Potentially a case like this could involve
06:45a settlement or a trial. It really depends on what the government's willing to offer
06:50and really the strength of their case, which at this point, it seems strong. But also,
06:59really, quite frankly, the message will be to the community and the world about this kind of
07:04conduct. Will he be an example for others? Based on what we've seen so far, what's your
07:11tea leave reading? Is the government going to make an example of him and really come down hard,
07:18push for a trial versus a settlement? Well, I just don't see how he avoids a trial when he's
07:25facing so much time. If they were to offer him something other than a life sentence potentially,
07:31but what he's looking at in the conduct is so egregious and it's so serious that he may be
07:39forced to go to trial. At the same time, it's hard for me to say. We haven't seen all of the
07:44evidence yet. What's been offered is not necessarily proven, but what the government
07:50thinks that it will be able to prove. Now, in the attorney's press conference today,
07:57there was a phrase used a number of times, at least three by my count,
08:01freak off. And that is not something that feels like a traditional legal term.
08:06Have you heard it before? Or is that unique to this case? Well, that's definitely not a legal
08:12term. So my reading of the references to the freak off was something that Combs created. It
08:20was some kind of sexual event where women who were coerced or sex trafficked were forced to engage in
08:27sexual conduct with male sex workers, sometimes being drugged, sometimes under the threat of
08:34violence. And violence and drugs were used to coerce people to stay. If they weren't participating
08:41in those acts, they were threatened. And not just through threat or violence, but really ruining
08:47their entire potential career if they were somebody who thought that they could be in the
08:52music industry. And we have to put it in a context where Sean Combs was an incredibly powerful and
08:57influential professional in the music industry. And so people felt compelled to participate in
09:04whatever he wanted so that they could have a shot. So quite frankly, it seems like the freak off,
09:11certainly nothing I've ever heard in the law, something that he constructed and coined the term,
09:16and now that's being repeated everywhere. That's interesting. So what we have here are
09:22allegations spanning a number of years. And as you correctly summarized at the top of this
09:27conversation, the building of the case took time. So as you look forward, Lauren, how long could
09:33this stretch out? Are we going to see this in the headlines and these legal proceedings take
09:41weeks, months, years? Or what's the typical timeline in a case like this?
09:45Well, on average, we see that federal cases sentencing occurs about two years after an
09:51indictment is brought. So I would say you're going to see periods where you hear absolutely nothing,
09:57and then there'll be some movement because there will be a court proceeding or some type of
10:00evidentiary hearing. Eventually, we'll learn about whether there's a trial. When there is a trial,
10:05I'm sure that that will be top of the news. I was going to say, if there is a trial,
10:10Sean Diddy Combs has a number of celebrity associates, and could any of those celebrity
10:16associates be compelled to testify? Well, absolutely. So it does seem like
10:22there was an involvement of many music industry professionals, rappers, and artists, and who may
10:28be victims in the case, who may be witnesses in the case, or other collateral witnesses who may
10:33be brought in to support the government's case. We can also see that potentially Combs could bring
10:39in defense witnesses. That was his world. It was a world of celebrities and rappers and
10:45R&B artists. And so those are the people who are going to set the stage and the context
10:48for everything that occurred. As you zoom out, does this indictment,
10:53does this arrest say anything to you about where we are in this moment in time, either in what is
10:59often called a post-MeToo society or where we are in this political cycle? Are there societal or
11:05cultural implications that you're taking from this moment?
11:09I think the cultural implications are huge. I think the level and scale of violence against
11:15women that is alleged in this case is really extraordinary. We don't see that in the law,
11:20and I think that is really important to reflect on at this time. If New York hadn't opened up
11:26that year of bringing cases where they may have been outside statute of limitations in a civil
11:32context to allow victims to tell their stories and to seek redress for their harms, I don't think
11:40we'd be at this place today. And so we are seeing legislatures make those types of moves because
11:45we are all recognizing that many of those stories have gone untold. As more and more victims come
11:51forward and tell those stories, I think we will see really a reformation of the law that listens
11:57to women, that takes their concerns and their grievances seriously, and seeks justice for those
12:03who are harmed. I'm curious because we've been talking about, obviously, it's the U.S. attorney
12:09for the Southern District of New York that unsealed the charges today. Could we see Sean
12:13Diddy Combs indicted in other jurisdictions, like in California, for instance? Well, I mean, he did
12:22have a residence or does have a residence in California. I understand he also has one
12:27in Florida. So it is possible that he could face other charges in other jurisdictions. Whether the
12:33government decides to do that strategically or if those cases also could be brought in New York
12:38is to be seen. But I think it's entirely possible if that conduct was occurring in other states.
12:45We've covered a lot of ground. Is there anything else that is important to understand
12:49about the case against Sean Diddy Combs at this point in time, based on what we know?
12:54Well, I think we have a person who was absolutely at the top of their game at one point in time,
13:00was really such an influential and important sort of Weinstein-esque figure in the music industry.
13:08And to see that we look back and over the last 15 years see that potentially he used such extreme
13:15force and violence against women and those in his world around him is really alarming and just
13:20calls for a moment of reflection on how celebrity can lead to this kind of thing.
13:26Lauren Johnson Norris, thank you so much for joining us. We so appreciate your insight here.
13:31Glad to be here. Thanks so much.