Sean “Diddy” Combs does not deserve a brand new trial as a result of “there was greater than a ample foundation” to assist his conviction on two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution, federal prosecutors argued in a brand new courtroom submitting in a single day, submitted in response to a July 31 protection movement requesting acquittal or a brand new trial.
Attorneys for Combs, who was discovered not responsible on July 2 of extra severe fees of racketeering and intercourse trafficking, asked the judge 4 weeks later to acquit him of the prostitution-related counts or grant him a brand new trial, arguing partly that the Mann Act – the legislation underneath which Combs was convicted – was too broadly interpreted to use to him, that the proof used to assist his conviction was missing, and that “spillover prejudice” from proof launched to assist the costs on which Combs was acquitted – proof the protection argued “would have been inadmissible” if Combs had been tried solely underneath the Mann Act – was “inflammatory.”
The Mann Act is a federal legislation that makes it a prison offense to “knowingly [transport] any particular person, male or feminine, in interstate or international commerce or in any territory or possession of the US for the aim of prostitution or sexual exercise which is a prison offense underneath the federal or state statute or native ordinance.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 26: Sean “Diddy” Combs attends Day 1 of 2023 Make investments Fest at Georgia World Congress Heart on August 26, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Picture by Paras Griffin/Getty Pictures)
Paras Griffin/Getty Pictures
Combs does not dispute hiring male escorts however his attorneys argued of their July movement that the Mann Act does not prohibit Combs’ conduct “as a result of he lacked a industrial motive and didn’t intend for paid escorts to have intercourse with him,” however somewhat to look at and video file them them having intercourse with girlfriends in sexual encounters referred to in trial testimony as so-called “freak-offs,” which his attorneys contended is “protected First Modification exercise.”
Prosecutors argued of their 58-page response that the legislation does not distinguish between voyeurism and revenue.
“He transported escorts throughout state strains to have interaction in Freak Offs for pay. He directed the sexual exercise of escorts and victims all through Freak Offs for his personal sexual gratification. And he personally engaged in sexual exercise throughout Freak Offs,” prosecutors mentioned of Combs of their submitting. “There was greater than a ample foundation, viewing the proof within the gentle most favorable to the Authorities, to assist the counts of conviction.”
The “freak-offs,” as former Combs girlfriend Cassie Ventura testified they had been known as and which one other former Combs girlfriend testifying underneath the pseudonym “Jane” known as “lodge nights,” happened at totally different residences or in resorts in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Ibiza, and Turks and Caicos, in line with trial testimony.
“Escorts traveled to those Freak Offs with Ventura and lodge nights with Jane. The defendant mentioned the escorts’ journey with Ventura and Jane,” prosecutors mentioned of their submitting, additional noting that “the journey preparations had been typically made on the defendant’s path” together with by utilizing a journey agent, having an escort service coordinate it, or by having Ventura and “Jane” deal with preparations.
Combs is scheduled to be sentenced on October 3.
