Sean “Diddy” Combs has requested the judge who’s overseeing his case to acquit him or give him a new trial – earlier than he has even been sentenced.
In a 62-page memorandum, filed in a single day on Wednesday, Combs’ protection argues that he was unfairly focused by the federal authorities and that his conviction was “unconstitutional” and unprecedented.
Combs was convicted on two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution earlier this month, however was acquitted on the extra critical fees of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking.
During his trial, prosecutors accused Combs of main a legal enterprise made up of a few of his closest staff, alleging they used threats, violence, pressured labor, bribery and different crimes to pressure Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and one other lady, “Jane,” to interact in drug-fueled intercourse acts with male escorts known as “Freak Offs” or “hotel nights.” His attorneys argued the intercourse acts had been consensual and merely preferences of a “swingers’” life-style, whereas making an attempt to undermine the hip-hop mogul’s accusers by contending they had been making an attempt to achieve a financial profit from Combs. He pleaded not responsible to all fees.
The new submitting states that Combs is the one particular person in America to be convicted beneath the Mann Act beneath his circumstances, together with his attorneys arguing that had he solely been charged with the 2 counts of transportation to interact in prostitution, his trial would have been fully totally different with much less proof of violence introduced to the jury.
“This conviction stands alone, but it should not stand at all,” Combs’ lawyer Alexandra Shapiro wrote within the memorandum.
“Since the government arrested Sean Combs last September, it has painted him as a monster. For months, prosecutors accused him of running a 20-year racketeering enterprise and of sex trafficking multiple women,” the submitting states. “But his 2-month trial showed these charges were not supported by credible evidence, and the jury rejected them.”
The submitting continues: “Mr. Combs now stands convicted only of two prostitution counts under the Mann Act, which doesn’t require proof of coercion, threats, or fraud. The government told the jury it had to convict so long as Mr. Combs arranged for a long-time girlfriend or a paid male escort or entertainer to travel across state lines to get together and have sex. And that is all the jury convicted him for.”
Combs’ protection argues it’s “undisputed that he had no commercial motive and that all involved were adults,” including that the “men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily.”
“To our knowledge, Mr. Combs is the only person ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct anything like this,” the submitting states.
Both of the federal government’s alleged victims – former girlfriends Ventura and the lady who testified beneath the pseudonym “Jane” – testified that they didn’t need to have intercourse with different males, telling the jury repeatedly that though they did interact within the drug-fueled “Freak-Offs,” the sexual encounters had been facilitated by Combs and they didn’t really feel that they had a alternative, since he managed their careers and funds. Ventura testified that she was scared of claiming no to Combs’ requests for her to have intercourse with different males as a result of he was ceaselessly violent together with her. The jury was introduced ample proof of Combs’ violence towards Ventura, together with 2016 resort surveillance footage of Ventura, which was first published by NCS in May 2024.
Despite their graphic testimony, the jury didn’t convict Combs of intercourse trafficking both lady.
“The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak-offs or hotel nights,” the submitting states. “We are aware of no other case in which a person was convicted under” the Mann Act, “even though he made no money from the ‘prostitution,’ didn’t have sex with the alleged prostitutes, and didn’t arrange the ‘transportation’ with the intent of committing sexual assault, sex trafficking, or a sex crime involving a minor. Indeed, under longstanding Department of Justice policy, Mann Act charges are not filed in similar circumstances.”
“Sean Combs sits in jail based on evidence that he paid adult male escorts and entertainers who engaged in consensual sexual activities with his former girlfriends, which he videotaped and later watched with the girlfriends,” the submitting later states. “That is not prostitution, and if it is, his conviction is unconstitutional.”
Combs’ staff argues that the “Freak-Off” movies – parts of which had been seen quite a few instances by the jury – should not proof of coercion or prostitution, however relatively “amateur porn.”
“When considered in its totality, the evidence presented by the government makes clear that Mr. Combs’s amateur porn, like many other adult films, was creative, intricate, and highly choreographed,” the submitting states. “The videos accordingly have expressive content and are protected by the First Amendment.”
During trial, each girls testified that Combs would threaten to launch the sexually specific movies that he had recorded of them, inflicting them to really feel disgrace, embarrassment and worry.
Combs’ request for a new trial or a full acquittal comes the identical week his protection filed one other movement pleading with the judge to launch the rap mogul from jail, this time on a $50 million bond forward of his sentencing, citing comparable Mann Act arguments, in addition to claiming he isn’t a flight threat nor a hazard to the neighborhood. (The judge has requested prosecutors reply to that submitting by finish of day Thursday.)
That movement marked Combs’ newest try at bail, after the judge had already denied his earlier requests, citing his admitted sample of violent conduct.
When Combs requested to be launched on bail after his sentencing, quite a few witnesses – together with Ventura – wrote letters to the judge, stating they might worry for his or her security if Combs didn’t stay in jail.
Combs’ sentencing is presently set for October 3. He has been held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in Manhattan in September 2024.