The federal judge overseeing Sean “Diddy” Combs’ imminent sentencing on the two lesser counts a jury found him guilty of in the split verdict at his sensational racketeering and sex trafficking trial over the summer is now weighing the argument from the mogul’s defense team that his conviction should be vacated if he must have a new trial.
On Thursday, just over a week before Combs, 55, is scheduled for sentencing after he was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, Judge Arun Subramanian told the court that he would issue a decision “very shortly” on the defense’s argument about Combs’ crimes and their relation to the Mann Act. Otherwise, Subramanian said, he would “see everyone back here next Friday.”
On Friday, the courts closed for the weekend with no announcement from Judge Subramanian on his decision.
The high-profile legal team that oversaw Combs’ defense at the eight-week federal trial, which ended with him found not guilty on much weightier sex trafficking and racketeering charges, argued for a narrow interpretation of what constitutes prostitution in terms of the Mann Act in Combs’ case. The legal precedent says that only those who engaged in the sexual acts or benefited financially from prostitution are criminally liable.
Combs did not gain any profit, his lawyers explain, when hiring male sex workers that he had at least two long-term girlfriends of his over the past two decades engage in “freak-off” parties — drug-fueled parties that could last for days and mostly involved Combs’ partner engaging with the male prostitutes in sex acts as he looked on — with them. His attorneys also argue that Combs didn’t even participate in the sex acts.
At Combs’ trial, evidence was presented that he and the two partners had hired the sex workers, but it was all funded by the near-billionaire mogul.
The Mann Act criminalizes the transport of a person across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Whether this should apply to voyeurism, defense attorney Mark Tack said, is at the center of Combs’ case at this point. He told the court it does not. Prosecutor Meredith Foster told the court that this is beside the point, as Combs had hired the men and paid for their fights and those taken by the two long-term girlfriends.
The defense team is also making the case that, because Combs would film the freak-off events as he directed the action taking place, lighting, music and wardrobe were all under his purview, as was stated in trial testimony — his freedom of expression rights would be violated if the Mann Act is to be enforced.
Federal prosecutor Christy Slavik, in refuting this argument, told the court that the Mann Act criminalizes transportation of individuals for prostitution, and “it does not criminalize filming sex acts of any kind.”
In a sentencing motion submitted this week, defense attorneys argued that Combs should be handed no more than 14 months for the two counts. Given the time he’s been serving in a Brooklyn federal lock-up since September 2024, this would see the fallen rap world kingpin back at home in November. Prosecutors have suggested they will seek a harsher sentence for Combs, likely a minimum of four years.
Combs faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for each count for which he was found guilty, so he could potentially be handed 20 years when he appears in federal court on Oct. 3.
