Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team has claimed that the disgraced music mogul might not have been mentally capable of committing crimes due to his substance use.
Combs, 55, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison after being charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and fraud. He is locked up without bail and his trial is set to begin May 5.
On Sunday, prosecutors filed a motion to dispute any testimony that might suggest the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper did not have the “mental capacity” to break the law, People reports.
The motion allegedly references testimony from psychiatrist Dr. Elie Aoun — as prosecutors requested that a judge prevent Aoun’s testimony from being included in court.
“The noticed testimony relates to the defendant’s diminished capacity to form the mens rea required to commit the charged offenses — in other words, a ‘mental condition bearing on the issue of guilt,’” prosecutors wrote in their filing, per documents obtained by People.
According to the Legal Information Institute, mens rea — which means “guilty mind” — refers to the defendant’s mental state when the crime was committed.
To secure a conviction, prosecutors must prove not only that the defendant committed the crime, but also that they did so with a guilty or blameworthy mindset. This must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt.
“If a defendant intends to introduce expert evidence relating to ‘a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition of the defendant bearing on . . . the issue of guilt,’ he must provide notice to the government,” prosecutors wrote in their objection filing.
In February, Combs’ legal team claimed that the US law is racist and the reason he is being “singled out” in what they call a “clear case of selective prosecution.”
In documents obtained by The Post, Combs’ lawyers filed a motion to dismiss his transportation to engage in prostitution charge, arguing that “no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.”
The rapper’s legal team sought to have the charge thrown out on the basis that the Mann Act of 1910 has historically been used to “target black men.”
They argue that “the use of escorts, male or female, is common and indeed widely accepted in American culture today.”
Combs is currently being held without bail in a Brooklyn lockup after pleading not guilty to federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges in a bombshell indictment accusing him of a decades-long alleged reign of sexual terror.
Prosecutors have dubbed the music honcho a “serial abuser” for allegedly forcing women into “freak-offs” — drug-fueled, dayslong performances of sexual depravity that an observing Combs would masturbate to, according to the indictment.
He’s also accused of several assaults — including punching and kicking his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a violent attack caught on camera — and dangling one of his alleged victims over an apartment balcony.
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