By Luc Cohen and Jack Queen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sean “Diddy” Combs’ “commercial voyeurism” does not qualify as prostitution, his defense lawyer argued on Thursday in urging a judge to set aside a jury’s verdict finding the hip-hop mogul guilty on prostitution charges.
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, but cleared him of more serious counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
He had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which could have landed him in prison for life.
In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan, defense lawyer Alexandra Shapiro characterized Combs’ conduct during days-long, drug-fueled sex marathons sometimes known as Freak Offs as “commercial voyeurism.”
She said the law criminalizing transportation to engage in prostitution should be applied only to people who themselves took part in sexual activity, or to people making money off the prostitutes.
“The statute should be construed narrowly essentially to only apply to pimping,” Shapiro said.
Meredith Foster, a prosecutor with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, said Combs need not have personally taken part in the sex acts to be convicted, since he helped arrange for the male escorts to travel.
Subramanian has not said when he will rule on Combs’ motion.
In court papers, Combs’ lawyers had previously argued that Combs was filming the encounters as “amateur pornography,” which they called protected speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Prosecutors said Combs used the films as blackmail by threatening to release them if his girlfriends stopped taking part in the encounters.
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.
As he entered Subramanian’s courtroom , Combs smiled, hugged his lawyers, and waved at his family seated in the audience.
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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