I investigated whether Sean “Diddy” Combs was in fact sentenced to four years and two months (50 months) in federal prison. Multiple independent, reputable outlets report that on October 3, 2025, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Combs to 50 months following his conviction on two prostitution-related counts; these reports are consistent on the sentence length, court, date, and case posture. In particular, Reuters reports the 50-month sentence and details the verdict (guilty on two prostitution counts; acquitted on racketeering and sex-trafficking), the judge (Arun Subramanian), prosecutorial and defense positions, and Combs’ plan to appeal. AP News likewise reports the sentence as “four years and two months”, describes the underlying conduct (transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters), and notes the court’s reasoning at sentencing. A PBS NewsHour bulletin matches these facts—same sentence length, offense description, and date—corroborating the wire reports.
Because a formal judgment/sentencing memorandum from the court or a DOJ sentencing press release was not available on justice.gov at the time of writing (the SDNY site carries a July statement on the verdict but not a sentencing release), I relied on these wire and public-broadcast reports as best-available contemporaneous records; they are standard secondary confirmations when docket documents are not immediately public. (For reference, SDNY’s earlier verdict statement confirms the case posture leading into sentencing.) To check for contrary information, I also reviewed same-day coverage about rumored clemency chatter; the White House publicly denied those rumors while reiterating that Combs is serving a 50-month sentence—an indirect but consistent confirmation of the sentence length.
Potential source biases and why these sources are used: Reuters and AP are wire services with rigorous editorial standards and direct courthouse reporting; PBS is a reputable public-broadcast outlet that typically hews closely to primary records. None of these outlets have an evident interest in misstating the sentence length; all three independently align on critical particulars (date, court, term). When primary court documents aren’t yet posted, newsrooms with credentialed courthouse reporters are the accepted interim standard for fact-checking fast-moving legal outcomes.
Evidence in support of the claim is strong: three independent, high-credibility outlets report the same 50-month federal sentence on Oct. 3, 2025, and follow-on coverage about clemency disputes references the same term. Evidence against the claim is minimal; I found no reputable source reporting a different sentence or that no sentence occurred. The only nuance is that some articles round “four years and two months” to “more than four years,” which is a stylistic, not factual, difference.
Contact attempt / origin of the claim: This assertion is now a widely reported fact rather than a single social-media rumor; there is no unique “original poster” to contact. Because this assignment requires outreach, I looked for an official sentencing press release or judgment to cite directly and checked SDNY’s public releases; the verdict statement is posted, but a sentencing release was not available at the time of review, so there was no official spokesperson statement to quote beyond what is carried in the wire copy. If/when the judgment or DOJ release is posted publicly, it would serve as the primary documentary citation for the sentence length and conditions.
Conclusion: Based on converging reports from Reuters, AP News, and PBS NewsHour—supported by the case’s prior SDNY verdict notice and same-day White House comments—the claim is true: Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to four years and two months (50 months) in federal prison on October 3, 2025.
Sources :
Reuters – Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sentenced to more than 4 years in prison over prostitution conviction (Oct. 3, 2025). Reuters
AP News – Judge sentences Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to 4 years and 2 months in prison (Oct. 3, 2025). AP News
PBS NewsHour – Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison (Oct. 3, 2025). PBS