Lawyers for Sean Combs on Wednesday asked a judge to vacate a jury’s verdict that convicted him on two prostitution-related charges or grant him a new trial limited to evidence connected to those counts.
At the conclusion of an eight-week federal trial in Manhattan earlier this month, Mr. Combs was acquitted of the two most serious charges against him, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which focused on accusations that he had coerced two long-term girlfriends into drug-fueled sexual encounters with hired male escorts.
But the jury found Mr. Combs, known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, a lesser charge — but still one that carries a maximum of 10 years in prison for each conviction.
In a 62-page motion filed late on Wednesday, the music mogul’s lawyers argued that the jury’s conviction of Mr. Combs under the federal Mann Act — which bars interstate commerce related to prostitution — should be overturned. “To our knowledge,” his lawyers wrote, “Mr. Combs is the only person ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct anything like” what was alleged in the case.
Mr. Combs’s lawyers have argued strenuously throughout the case, and in the recent filing, that the sexual encounters at issue — referred to as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” — were consensual and that Mr. Combs had no financial motive. The defense also argued that the encounters, which Mr. Combs often filmed, amounted to producing “amateur pornography,” which it said is protected by the First Amendment.
“Mr. Combs, at most, paid to engage in voyeurism as part of a ‘swingers’ lifestyle,” said the filing, which was signed by Alexandra Shapiro, an appellate lawyer who is part of the Combs defense team. “That does not constitute ‘prostitution’ under a properly limited definition of the statutory term.”
At trial, after the government rested its case, the defense made a motion under the rules of criminal procedure to acquit Mr. Combs of all charges, arguing that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge, Arun Subramanian, reserved his decision on that motion, and has not yet ruled on it.
In its latest motion, the defense said that if the judge does not grant its request for an acquittal, Mr. Combs should be given a new trial limited to the evidence related to the Mann Act charges “due to severe spillover prejudice from reams of inflammatory evidence” related to the sex-trafficking and racketeering allegations.
The defense specifically cited the security video from a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, where Mr. Combs was seen beating Casandra Ventura, one of the women at the heart of the case. Some of the men who participated in “freak-offs” had been hired through an escort service operating openly, and at least two had been identified as pornographic actors. At trial, the defense argued that the men hired for sexual encounters had been paid for their time, and not for sex.
Prosecutors pushed back strongly against that claim. Jurors were shown detailed financial records showing how various men had been hired and transported for the encounters, and witnesses — including two escorts — testified to the men being paid in cash.
At one point, jurors saw text messages from Mr. Combs complaining to an escort’s dispatcher that a man he had hired “couldn’t even perform.”
In closing arguments to the jury, Christy Slavik, a prosecutor, directly attacked the defense’s argument that the men had not been hired for sex, referencing one escort who had been identified as Daniel.
“I’m going to spend no more than 10 seconds on this ridiculous argument,” Ms. Slavik told the jurors, “because you know why Daniel and all of the other escorts were paid. They were paid for sex.”
In another motion on Tuesday, Mr. Combs’s lawyers asked the judge to release Mr. Combs from detention on a $50 million bond, pending his sentencing on the Mann Act charges. The judge gave the government until Thursday to respond. Mr. Combs’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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