Hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs on Friday faced a judge in a Manhattan federal courtroom and learned his fate after a pair of convictions over the summer for sordid sex crimes.

At the hearing, which lasted the entire day, U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced Combs to 50 months in prison, NBC News reported, a total of four years and two months behind bars.

'The government equates Sean Combs with a pimp. I want to be clear: Mr. Combs is not a pimp.'

ABC News reported that Combs gets credit for time served; he's been behind bars since his arrest in September 2024.

"You abused the power and control with women you professed to love," the judge said, according to the news network. "You abused them physically, emotionally, and psychologically."

Just prior to the sentencing, an apologetic Combs spoke in court and blamed himself and drugs for his "disgusting, shameful and sick" behavior, NBC News reported.

"I was sick, sick from the drugs. I was out of control, I needed help, and I didn't get the help, and I cannot make no excuse ..." he said, according to NBC News.

Combs also addressed the judge, NBC News said: "I can't change the past but can change the future. I ask your honor for mercy. I beg your honor for mercy, to be a father again, a son again and be a leader in my community again and get the help I desperately need."

Combs was acquitted in July of sex trafficking and racketeering charges in connection with accusations that he operated a criminal enterprise that coerced women into sordid, sexual marathons now infamously known as "freak-offs" with "dozens" of prostitutes.

But the jury of eight men and four women convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — flying people around the country for sexual encounters, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, which the AP said is a violation of the federal Mann Act.

Also during Friday's hearing, Judge Subramanian said Combs failed to express remorse for the charge of transporting people for prostitution, which the judge said is inconsistent with reality and accepting responsibility, NBC News reported.

What's more, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik blasted Combs for scheduling upcoming speaking engagements, NBC News said, adding that a Miami nonprofit in a letter filed with the court Thursday said Combs has speaking engagements set for Oct. 14, 17, 23, 25, and 29.

"That is the height of hubris; that is the opposite of the rule of law," Slavik said during Friday's hearing, NBC News noted.

Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for REVOLT

But defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson pushed back Friday against the prosecution's characterization of the Miami dates, saying they are "teaching engagements" if the court lets Combs walk free, NBC News noted.

Donaldson added that "the government equates Sean Combs with a pimp. I want to be clear: Mr. Combs is not a pimp," Donaldson said during the hearing, NBC News said, adding that "a pimp is in the business of subjugating women; therefore he should not and cannot be considered a pimp."

Combs' defense had asked for a 14-month sentence — which NBC News said is basically time already served — but prosecutors asked the judge to sentence him to a 135-month prison term, or 11 years and three months. The news network said the probation department recommended a sentence of seven years and three months behind bars.

The judge had denied bail, NBC News said, and Combs has remained behind bars. He was arrested in connection with the original charges — to which he pleaded not guilty — in September 2024.

Combs on Thursday night in a letter to Subramanian said "how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused," NBC News added.

“I lost my way," he added in the letter that asked for mercy, the news network said. "I got lost in my journey. Lost in the drugs and the excess. My downfall was rooted in my selfishness."

In addition, Combs' defense team prepared a nearly 12-minute video to be played in court that depicts him in a positive light. The following report includes a snippet of the video.

Combs' defense attorneys in their pre-sentencing filing added letters from 70 family members, music collaborators, and other supporters — including fellow inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, who said Combs has been a role model who helped them improve their lives, NBC News said.

However, Combs' former girlfriend — R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura — also wrote a letter to the judge. In it she called the 55-year-old Combs an abuser who has "no interest in changing or becoming better," NBC reported. Ventura also asserted in the letter that Combs "will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is."

Sean "Diddy" Combs with then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at the Clive Davis and Recording Academy Pre-GRAMMY Gala in New York City, Jan. 27, 2018. Photo by Steve Granitz/Getty Images

Ventura in May testified that Combs beat her — "he would bash me on my head" — as she also detailed the "freak-offs."

Also during May's hearings, Ventura stated she suffered from medical issues after a "freak-off" orgy, including sores on her mouth, stomach problems, and "very painful" urinary tract infections. Ventura also alleged that Combs raped her in 2018 after their 11-year relationship ended.

As Blaze News reported in 2024, a disturbing video surfaced allegedly showing an "extremely intoxicated" Combs brutally assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Combs in court Friday personally apologized to Ventura and her family, NBC News reported.

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'I don't want your salvation! I want you to f**king die!' Student prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk hit with 'pure evil'

In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the New York University College Republicans organized a prayer vigil at Washington Square Park on Sunday night.

"All we wanted was some time to mourn the death of a man who meant so much to so many people," chapter President Ryan Leonard said.

'You're in a very, very dark place, but we'll pray for your salvation.'

Leonard, a senior, told Blaze News that while he'd been part of the College Republicans ever since his start at NYU, he'd been president only since the beginning of the fall semester — and the candlelight vigil would be his first time in charge of a major club event.

It would prove a baptism by fire for the philosophy major.

Image source: NYU College Republicans; @nyurepublicans on X; used by permission

Leonard told Blaze News that anywhere from 50 to 100 individuals attended the vigil, and it was looking pretty good — highlighted by an impressive display of Kirk-related images under the park's legendary Arch.

Image source: NYU College Republicans; @nyurepublicans on X; used by permission

Unfortunately, about 20 to 30 protesters showed up, too, Leonard told Blaze News.

While vigil attendees sang the national anthem and attempted to pray, protesters openly mocked Kirk and praised his murder; they even sang a song reflective of an engraving on the assassin's bullet casings. Indeed, it was a continuation of a chilling, unnerving theme that's been played out at other college campuses following Kirk's cold-blooded killing — including at Texas Tech University and Texas State University.

But one protester was particularly aggressive, Leonard told Blaze News, noting that he was "one of the most vulgar and disruptive protesters there."

This guy came with an acoustic guitar and sang some songs with "inappropriate" lyrics, Leonard said, adding that the College Republicans fought back by not giving him attention, even when he was "calling us white supremacists and racists."

Well, that only fueled the protester's fire.

The dark-hearted individual ended up getting a "foot away from our members," Leonard told Blaze News, but still the vigil-goers "did not engage him."

Leonard told Blaze News that at first "I was just very angry when he was disrupting, and then I saw the wrath in his heart, and I became sad for him and the state he was in."

In a brief video the College Republicans recorded, Leonard can be heard telling the protester that "you're in a very, very dark place, but we'll pray for your salvation."

With that, the demented busker launched into an apparently improvised song aimed right back at Leonard. As he strummed angry chords, he loudly sang, "I don't want your salvation! I want you to f**king die! We're not gonna give you a second chance, even when you beg for it, on your knees, begging and pleading!"

Here's the clip, which is used with permission from @nyurepublicans on X. Content warning: Language:

— (@)

Leonard told Blaze News that while vigil-goers only returned his hatred with peace, the protester just "got madder and more enraged" and "he started being threatening."

Worse yet, as the protester continued his verbal assaults, Leonard told Blaze News that "more people gathered around him" and a kind of mob was forming. Soon the vigil-goers started getting literally "pushed around," Leonard explained.

Finally, New York police officers "escorted us away," he noted.

Washington Square Park is completely open, so anyone off the street can enter it. Given that kind of access, Blaze News asked Leonard if he was concerned for his safety and that of his fellow club members, given the way Kirk was assassinated out in the open at Utah Valley University just days ago. Leonard told Blaze News that possibility was "definitely going through my mind."

But as the club's president said in a previous statement, he and his fellow College Republicans won't be bullied: "To interrupt a solemn vigil full of grieving young people who were trying to honor the life of an inspiration and mentor they looked up to is pure evil, and we will not let them intimidate us into silence. We will go even harder to honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk."

In fact, Leonard added to Blaze News that Sunday night's ordeal has resulted in a "boost in our club that I've never seen before. People are encouraging us, and they appreciate us standing up for them."

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Manhattan is a ‘food desert’: Bernie Sanders defends government grocery stores

If you’re among those pushing back against the idea of government-run grocery stores being peddled by NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders has some words for you.

“What a radical idea to say that working-class families should be able to go into a grocery store, in an area where there are food deserts, and be able to afford decent quality food for their children,” Sanders says, before mocking, “Oh man! What a radical guy he is!”

BlazeTV host Pat Gray is not amused.

“Absolute buffoon!” Gray yells. “This is what they go to, is ‘food deserts.’ They were doing this under Obama, and they’re doing it all over again. All of a sudden, food deserts are back. That was disclaimed and debunked a long time ago.”

“In virtually every hamlet of Manhattan, there are grocery stores. There are restaurants. There are plenty of places,” he continues.

“Pat Gray Unleashed” co-host Jeffy interjects, “At one time, I don’t know if they’ve been arrested and deported, but at one time, you could get a bicyclist just to bring your food right to you. Fresh food. Right there in Manhattan.”

“Manhattan, New York City, that’s not a desert for anything,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in. “Anything you want.”

“You can get it in moments,” Gray adds.

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Establishment Democrat's congressional career takes a turn: 'This decision has not been easy'

Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York has long been a pillar of the Democrat establishment in Washington, D.C. After 50 years in public office, the 78-year-old made a consequential announcement with respect to his congressional career.

As of Monday night, Nadler will no longer be seeking re-election in 2026, leaving a vacant seat in the heart of Manhattan. Nadler said that although his decision to retire was difficult, the longtime lawmaker wants "to pass the torch to a new generation" of Democrat leadership.

'I don’t know what the future beyond 2026 holds.'

"This decision has not been easy," Nadler said in a statement. "But I know in my heart it is the right one and that it is the right time to pass the torch to a new generation."

Nadler was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 after serving in the New York State Assembly for 15 years. During his congressional tenure, he also served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2023.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Notably, Nadler has not made clear what his next professional endeavor will be following his retirement.

"I don’t know what the future beyond 2026 holds, but I plan to stay fully engaged in the community that is my home and in the causes that I’ve championed throughout my life," Nadler said.

"My plans for the next 16 months, however, are clear. I will continue to give everything I have to defend our democracy, protect our institutions, and fight for the values that as Americans and New Yorkers we share.”

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In a recent interview, Nadler said the aftermath of former President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race was formative for the Democratic Party, noting that it "really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party."

"I think I want to respect that," Nadler said.

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Stop calling Zohran Mamdani a communist — he’s something worse

Every time I hear a Fox News host or a Republican pundit call New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani a “communist” or “democratic socialist,” I wince in annoyance. Sometimes, I even yell at the TV — not that they can hear me, and even if they could, they’d probably ignore me.

In reality, however, Mamdani is not a would-be Lenin. He is, in fact, a practitioner of woke capitalism. He’s not about to nationalize the means of production or seize the assets of the wealthy progressives in Brooklyn’s Park Slope and Manhattan’s Upper East Side — the very people bankrolling his campaign and voting for him.

The more we cling to outdated Cold War categories, the less attention we give to fighting the woke maniacs dismantling our constitutional order.

What Mamdani will do, most likely, is strip police protection from working-class neighborhoods, pour taxpayer money into gimmicks like city-owned grocery stores, and glorify Hamas terrorists.

Soviet-style central planning isn’t on his agenda for the Big Apple. Cultural revolution is.

Boomer nostalgia for the Cold War

Those calling Mamdani a “communist” are playing to Boomer-era Republican fixations. They’re appealing to people who still see politics through Cold War lenses — the bad guys are “commies,” and anyone unwilling to bury socialism is the enemy.

It’s an easy way to rally the troops: Invoke Ronald Reagan’s fight against “the evil empire,” and pretend that Mao and Brezhnev still represent the ultimate threat. For some Republicans, “democratic socialist” is simply a euphemism for “communist,” and that means we’re back in the glory days of battling the Soviets. It simply isn’t so.

I’ve been called a “right-wing Marxist” by people who should know better. But when communism was the threat, I was as anti-communist as anyone alive. I even admired Senator Joseph McCarthy’s efforts to expose Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government and military — to a point. But that’s not the danger in front of us now.

The real threat isn’t Marxism

The greatest danger today comes from woke maniacs embedded in media, education, and government — people dismantling our constitutional order in the name of “equity” and “inclusion.” The more we cling to outdated Cold War categories, the less attention we give to fighting them.

What’s more dangerous: Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky economic ideas, or his militant abortion politics, his zeal for performing gender-transition surgeries on minors, his rejection of biological sex, and his anti-white rhetoric? The “communist” label is the least of our concerns.

Mamdani is a woke zealot, and nearly half of New York’s voters embrace his politics. His biggest fans are young, college-educated progressives who love both his identity-based crusades and his promises of government giveaways.

Why the right keeps missing the point

Some Republican commentators may be too nostalgic for Boomer anti-communism — or too wary of alienating their own socially liberal supporters — to confront Mamdani’s cultural extremism head-on. It’s easier to rehash 1970s and ’80s rhetoric than to grapple with the ideological fight that’s actually in front of us.

Photo by BRYAN DOZIER/AFP via Getty Images

The Manhattan Institute reports that Mamdani’s proposed budget includes $65 million for “gender-affirming care,” including surgery for minors, and the creation of a special City Hall office dedicated to LGBTQIA+ advocacy. In Minneapolis, the Democratic frontrunner — another African Muslim, though hardly devout — plans to turn the city into the nation’s hub for sex-change procedures and a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

Yes, Mamdani wants to “promote the global intifada” and squander tax dollars on absurd programs. But his war on public safety and his hostility to traditional norms should alarm us most. None of this has anything to do with Marxism.

A warning to the GOP

Communist regimes, in fact, were more conservative than Mamdani on social policy and public order. Eastern European communist parties today oppose same-sex marriage and most of the LGBTQ agenda. Mamdani’s program is far more culturally radical than anything dreamed up in the Kremlin.

It may take time for Republicans stuck in Cold War mode to grasp this. But if we keep fighting yesterday’s ideological battles, we’ll keep losing today’s cultural war.

Four dead, one message: Help the sick before they kill

Late Monday afternoon in Midtown Manhattan, the summer heat clung to the glass and steel of Park Avenue, usually a quiet street save for the occasional honking horn or blaring siren. But as the sun dipped behind the towering skyscrapers, violence erupted.

A 27-year-old man, whose name I won't bother mentioning, stepped out of a black BMW he had double-parked near 51st and 52nd Streets. His movements were calm, deliberate. In his hands, he carried an AR-15 rifle. His target was 345 Park Avenue, a tower of wealth and power, housing the offices of Blackstone, the National Football League, and Rudin Management. The idea of chaos here, in this building, felt foreign — until it wasn’t.

If we don’t get back to the root causes of violence, we’re doomed to continue spiraling into chaos.

The shooter made his way into the building lobby, where he shot in the back 36-year-old New York City Police Officer Didarul Islam, whose wife was about to give birth to their third child. The gunman then gunned down a woman hiding behind a pillar, her life taken in an instant.

The footage shows him moving with a chilling calm, methodical and relentless. A guard behind a desk became his next victim. Then another man, an NFL employee, was shot and is still in critical condition.

The shooter made his way to the elevators, and, strangely, as one opened, a woman stepped out. He let her pass. Why? We’ll never know. But she will likely ask herself that question for the rest of her life.

He continued to the 33rd floor, where Rudin is located. There, in the quiet hum of fluorescent lights and the soft chatter of cubicles, he began “to walk the floor, firing as he traveled.” Another victim fell, another family destroyed.

And then, in a final act, he turned the rifle on himself.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that the scene was contained. But the damage was done. Four people were dead: one officer, one security guard, and two civilians. Several more were wounded.

The root issue: Mental illness

As details emerged, we learned more about the gunman’s background. He had driven cross-country from Las Vegas to New York. By trade, he was a security guard at a Las Vegas casino, and he held a concealed carry permit. Yet his history of mental illness, coupled with a backpack full of ammunition, medication, and his clear intent, painted a grim picture.

We also learned that his real target was the NFL, not Rudin. The shooter, suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease common in high-contact sports caused by repeated head collisions, blamed the NFL for his condition.

He had played football in his youth, but never at the professional level. His note, found on his body after he shot himself, said he wanted his brain studied, to contribute to the understanding of his condition.

This wasn’t just an ordinary act of violence; it was a tragic collision of a mentally unstable man and a gun.

A growing crisis

America is in the midst of an unprecedented mental health crisis. As I walk through cities like New York, I am confronted by the increasing number of unstable individuals teetering on the brink of violence. Not long ago, my wife and I were walking through Manhattan when a man on a bike circled us, looking me directly in the eye, saying, “I’m going to kill me a white man today. Today is the day.”

Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Staff via Getty Images

The man was clearly unhinged. Fortunately, he noticed the armed security behind us, and he quickly rode away. But what if they hadn’t been there? What if he had been someone who wasn’t aware of the people around him?

The world we live in today is one where violence is erupting in public spaces, fueled by mental illness, societal breakdown, and a lack of accountability — and it’s becoming a national trend. This isn’t just about guns or laws — it’s about what’s happening inside the minds of those who perpetrate these acts.

A wake-up call

It’s easy for people to point fingers. To blame social media, to blame the media itself, to call for more laws. But this crisis is about much more than that. It’s about a loss of morality, family, social cohesion, transcendent purpose, genuine human connection, and so much more that comes with a society whose values are rooted in God’s truth.

I’m not a mental health expert, but surely the degeneration of these social goods and the historic rise in mental disorders, especially among young people, are not coincidental. We can’t keep turning a blind eye to such things and pretend that new laws or more regulations will fix it.

This isn’t just about changing laws; it’s about changing hearts. If we don’t, we’ll keep losing those we hold dear.

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NYC Mayor Adams reveals how Manhattan mass shooter missed his target, ended up dead on wrong floor

A gunman stormed into a Manhattan office building on Monday afternoon and fatally shot four people, including New York Police Officer Didarul Islam.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the shooter as 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas and indicated that he had a "documented mental health history."

Tamura, who supposedly suffered from a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma, had allegedly driven from Nevada to New York — passing through Colorado on Saturday, then Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday — and had only been in the city for a few hours before he began shooting.

— (@)

Surveillance footage captured the shooter exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6:30 p.m., then heading toward 345 Park Avenue, where he shot Islam, who was working a corporate security detail, as well as a woman who desperately tried to take cover.

Tisch indicated that on his way to the elevator bank, the shooter shot a guard at a security desk, then gunned down another man in the lobby. The shooter then rode the elevator to the 33rd-floor offices of Rudin Management, the company that owns the building, where he murdered another victim, then killed himself.

Investigators found a rifle case, multiple magazines, ammunition, prescription medication, and a loaded revolver inside the gunman's vehicle, which was left at the scene.

— (@)

Police were initially mum about potential motives on Monday, prompting a great deal of speculation, given that the skyscraper where the shootings took place houses the headquarters of the National Football League and several financial institutions, including the investment firm Blackstone and the accounting and financial advisory firm KPMG.

Mayor Eric Adams said in a Tuesday interview that the gunman was trying to shoot up the NFL offices but took the wrong elevator.

Sources told the New York Post that the gunman was carrying a note in his pocket expressing grievances against the NFL. In the note, Tamura allegedly referred to the former Pittsburgh Steeler player Terry Long's suicide following his CTE diagnosis and indicated that he, too, suffered from CTE.

The shooter reportedly played high school football in Southern California.

"You never would have thought violence was something you'd associate with him," former classmate Caleb Clarke told NBC News. "Everything he said was a joke."

This is a developing story.

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Hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs learns his fate after convictions for sordid sex crimes

New York Times Trashes City’s Elementary Gifted Program As ‘Symbol of Segregation’ As Mamdani Calls to Phase It Out

Palestinian UN Representative Blames Israel for 'Famine' In Gaza From His Luxury Manhattan Apartment

'I don't want your salvation! I want you to f**king die!' Student prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk hit with 'pure evil'

Want more from Pat Gray?

Establishment Democrat's congressional career takes a turn: 'This decision has not been easy'

Stop calling Zohran Mamdani a communist — he’s something worse

Boomer nostalgia for the Cold War

The real threat isn’t Marxism

Why the right keeps missing the point

A warning to the GOP

The root issue: Mental illness

A growing crisis

A wake-up call

NYC Mayor Adams reveals how Manhattan mass shooter missed his target, ended up dead on wrong floor

Unhinged student who flipped Turning Point USA table gets arrested and faces 5 charges

Female caught on video tossing cup of scalding coffee on McDonald's manager, who suffers burns

Mamdani, Self-Styled Patron of the Working Class, Gets Advice From Celebrity Stylist

Princeton Announces New Class on 'Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide' in Gaza, Taught by Israel-Hating 'Feminist' Who Denies Hamas Killed Babies, Raped Women on Oct 7

Teacher shot by 6-year-old student awarded millions of dollars in civil lawsuit

Want more from Pat Gray?

Boomer nostalgia for the Cold War

The real threat isn’t Marxism

Why the right keeps missing the point

A warning to the GOP

The root issue: Mental illness

A growing crisis

A wake-up call

We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.