Federal prosecutors are urging a judge to swiftly reject Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request to overturn a jury verdict or order a new trial following his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.
Court filings submitted late Wednesday allege that Combs orchestrated complex sexual events for two ex-girlfriends from 2008 through last year, involving the hiring of male sex workers who were sometimes required to travel across state lines.
In July, a jury cleared the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, which could have carried a mandatory 15-year sentence up to life, but convicted him on two lesser Mann Act charges, which prohibit interstate travel for prostitution. Each Mann Act charge carries a potential 10-year sentence. Combs has been denied bail and is expected to serve multiple years in prison. He has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest at a Manhattan hotel. Sentencing is set for Oct. 3.
Prosecutors dismissed Combs’ lawyers’ claims that the Mann Act is vague and violates due process and First Amendment rights. “Evidence of the defendant’s guilt on the Mann Act counts was overwhelming,” they wrote, citing multiday, drug-fueled sexual events called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” that Combs organized, often filming the encounters to coerce the women into continued participation.
The filings said Combs “masterminded every aspect” of these encounters, paying escorts to travel and directing the sexual activity for his own gratification while sometimes joining in.
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Testimony included R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who dated Combs from 2008 to 2018, describing weekly sexual meetups with male escorts that left her too exhausted to focus on her music. Another woman, identified as “Jane,” said she participated in similar multiday events while dating Combs from 2021 to last September. Both said Combs threatened to release videos of the encounters to control their behavior.
Prosecutors noted that Combs exerted substantial control over Ventura and Jane’s lives, from career and appearance to financial support, including paying Jane’s $10,000 rent while threatening to withdraw it if she did not comply.
Combs’ lawyers argued in their filing that the Mann Act convictions were unwarranted, claiming no commercial motive or coercion existed and that all participants were consenting adults. They maintained that Combs “at most, paid to engage in voyeurism as part of a ‘swingers’ lifestyle,” which, they said, does not legally constitute prostitution.
Source: Agency