According to Variety.com, Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in jail ahead of his sentencing hearing because his recent motion for bail has been denied by the judge who has presided over his trial. “Combs fails to satisfy his burden to demonstrate an entitlement to release,” Judge Arun Subramanian wrote in a letter on Monday. The order comes a week after Combs’ defense team filed a 62-page letter to the court advocating for his release ahead of his October 3 sentencing date.

On July 2, Combs was acquitted on charges of alleged sex trafficking and racketeering but he was found guilty of two lesser counts of alleged transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors are recommending that Combs serve four to five years in prison, including the nearly 11 months he has already spent behind bars since his September 2024 arrest.

In their motion, Combs’ lawyers argued that the Mann Act, the statute under which he was convicted, has historically been applied to pimps or sexual crimes involving minors. In their view, Combs allegedly was consenting male escorts to make “amateur porn,” not running a prostitution business. “Sean Combs has basically been convicted for using the services of a sex worker and that’s just not really prosecuted anymore,” Combs’ lead counsel, Marc Agnifilo, told Variety in an interview on August 1.

On another note, nme.com has reported that U.S. President Donald Trump has said it would be “difficult” to pardon Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs because the artist was allegedly “very hostile” towards him. In June, Trump did say he would look into a potential pardon for Combs and that he would “certainly look at the facts.” But now, Trump has weighed in again by calling Combs “half-innocent” and saying it is “more likely a no” that he would be pardoned. Well, he was essentially, I guess, sort of half-innocent,” Trump told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty on August 1. “He’s still in jail or something, but he was celebrating a victory. But I guess it wasn’t as good of a victory.”