Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Lawyers Now Seeking Acquittal on Guilty Verdicts, Months Ahead of His Sentencing

Months before Sean “Diddy” Combs’ scheduled sentencing for the two counts of which he was found guilty in his recently-concluded federal criminal trial, the rap mogul’s legal team has filed a lengthy preemptive memorandum seeking his acquittal or that there be an entirely new trial for the government’s charges against him. 

The incarcerated rap icon’s team filed the 64-page memo late on Wednesday night. It notes that Combs was convicted only of two counts under the Mann Act and that despite the Justice Department’s claims that he ran a criminal enterprise for over 20 years through his various businesses, the jury rejected racketeering charges and accusations that he engaged in sex trafficking. Now his defense team is calling the application of the Mann Act in Combs’ circumstances “unprecedented.”

“Since the government arrested Sean Combs last September, it has painted him as a monster,” the memo states. “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. To our knowledge, Mr. Combs is the only person ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct anything like this.”

Combs had no commercial motive in orchestrating his “freak-off” parties with two of his girlfriends and several hired male sex workers, who were flown to various locations over a 20-year period that fell under the DOJ’s indictment of the rap star, the attorneys note, adding that all involved in the drug-fueled sex marathons recorded by Combs, were adults. 

“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily. The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak-offs or hotel nights. And Mr. Combs never had sex with the supposed prostitutes,” the lawyers argue. “We are aware of no other case in which a person was convicted under 18 U.S.C. §2421(a) 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.”

In the memo sent to the Southern District of New York U.S. District Court, Combs’ defense argues that the Mann Act should be interpreted narrowly by the court in the case. This is because, they argue, the Mann Act doesn’t define the term “prostitution;” interpreting Combs’ conduct at “freak-off” events, brings about “serious constitutional problems.” 

“If Mr. Combs had been charged solely with two Mann Act prostitution counts, this would have been a totally different trial,” the filing states.

The attorneys are also so bold as to state that the videos of “freak-offs” constitute works of art. 

“When considered in its totality, the evidence presented by the government makes clear that Mr. Combs’ amateur porn, like many other adult films, was creative, intricate and highly choreographed,” a Combs attorney states. “The videos accordingly have expressive content and are protected by the First Amendment.” 

The lawyers are asking that Combs be acquitted of the transportation to engage in prostitution counts; if the court denies this request, they are asking for an entire new trial for their client. 

​​“If this court declines to acquit him of those charges,” the memo states, “he at least deserves a new trial focused solely on those charges — a new trial without truckloads of otherwise inadmissible and inflammatory evidence.” The filing goes on to justify a new trial “due to spillover prejudice from evidence that would have been inadmissible had the Mann Act counts been tried alone.”

This memorandum to toss the charges is just the latest strategy Combs team has hurled at the federal court to spring him from the Metropolitan Correction Center in Brooklyn. The mogul has been housed there since his September arrest, having been deemed to be high-risk and therefore denied bail by three judges ahead of his trial. His legal team recently asked again for his release on a $50 million bond, which would include a home confinement scenario. Judge Aron Subramanian, who is overseeing the case, has yet to respond to that motion; when denying Combs bail on the day his split verdict was announced, he noted a provision in the transportation to engage in prostitution law that the judge said presumes detention.

The Justice Department, on the day it lost the bulk of its case against Combs, indicated that it would be seeking a heavy sentence for the rapper, who is accused of covering up via a $100,000 bribe an attack on his girlfriend Cassie Ventura at an L.A. hotel; video of the harrowing incident went viral after it was published by CNN and made Combs a known domestic abuser in the eyes of many ahead of the trial. The rapper apologized for the violent acts, calling them “inexcusable” and adding he took “full responsibility” for them.

Comb is set for sentencing on Oct. 3. He could face anything from time served to the maximum 20 years in prison.