NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Sean “Diddy” Combs is due to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing over his bid to set aside a jury’s verdict finding the hip-hop mogul guilty on prostitution charges but clearing him of more serious counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs, 55, faces up to 20 years in prison if the July 2 conviction stands. Jurors found he paid male escorts to travel across state lines to have sex with his girlfriends while he filmed and masturbated. He had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which could have landed him in prison for life.
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They also argued that Combs was filming the encounters as “amateur pornography,” which they called protected speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office said in an August 20 filing that Combs need not have personally taken part in the sex acts to be convicted, since he helped arrange for the male escorts to travel.
TRIAL CENTERED ON FREAK OFFS
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, is credited with elevating hip-hop in American culture. He was arrested on sex trafficking charges on September 16, 2024, and has since been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
During his two-month trial earlier this year, prosecutors said he coerced two former girlfriends into the sexual performances.
Both women – rhythm and blues singer Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, and a woman known by the pseudonym Jane – testified that Combs physically attacked them and threatened to cut off financial support if they refused to participate in the sex performances.
Combs’ lawyers acknowledged the physical attacks, but argued there was no direct link between what they called domestic violence and the women’s participation in the Freak Offs.
They also said Ventura and Jane consented to the encounters because they loved Combs and wanted to make him happy.
COMBS SEEKS SHORT SENTENCE
At the hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers will each be given 20 minutes to present their arguments. Subramanian asked lawyers for both sides to address whether Combs should have raised his First Amendment argument earlier.
Combs is scheduled to be sentenced on October 3, should Subramanian uphold his conviction. In a court filing earlier this week, his lawyers suggested a 14-month sentence. That would see him released soon, as he would be credited for the time he has already spent in jail.
Prosecutors are due to file their own sentencing recommendation on September 29.
Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot
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Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.
Jack Queen covers major lawsuits against the Trump administration involving urgent questions of executive power and how their resolution could affect the law and the legal profession in the years to come. Previously, he covered criminal and civil cases against Trump during the interim of his presidential terms, including gavel-to-gavel coverage of his historic hush money trial in New York and his civil fraud trial, which ended in a half-billion-dollar judgment. Jack has also covered high-profile defamation cases including the Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, which settled for $787 million after intense pretrial litigation. Based in New York, he specializes in breaking news as well as analysis, explainers and other explanatory reporting.
