Just days after requesting that Sean Combs be released from jail prior to his Oct. 3 sentencing hearing, his attorneys have filed a motion with the court asking that he be acquitted or be granted a new trial.
Following a seven-week trial, Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Each count could carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The 12-person jury found Combs not guilty of one count of racketeering, and two counts of sex trafficking. The prosecutors had argued that Combs ran a criminal enterprise with the help of his associates from at least 2004 to 2024. He denied all charges against him as well as any wrongdoing.
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The former music mogul’s lawyers claimed in their request that following his arrest in September, the government has “painted him as a monster.” The filing reads, “For months, prosecutors accused him of running a 20-year racketeering enterprise and of sex trafficking multiple women. But his two-month trial showed these charges were not supported by credible evidence, and the jury rejected them. Mr. Combs now stands convicted only of two prostitution counts under the Mann Act, which doesn’t require proof of coercion, threats, or fraud.”
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Attorney Douglas Wigdor of Wigdor LLP, who represented Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the trial, and his associates declined to comment Thursday morning.
According to the defense, Combs is the only person ever convicted under 18 U.S.C. §2421(a) where he neither had sex with the alleged “prostitutes,” nor profited, nor acted with intent to commit any sexual assault or trafficking. “All involved were adults, and the men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily.” The jury confirmed that no one was vulnerable, trafficked, or assaulted.
Combs’ legal team contends, “The conduct at issue, private performances between adults, often filmed and rewatched by Mr. Combs and his girlfriends, falls under constitutionally protected sexual expression.
“This is protected First Amendment conduct,” the filing argues, “that no substantial government interest justifies prohibiting.”
In their request earlier this week, Combs’ lawyers claimed that the Mann Act “has never been applied to facts similar to these to prosecute or incarcerate any other person.” Passed in 1910 and previously known as the White-Slave Traffic Act, the federal law “criminalizes the transportation of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any immoral purpose.”
Combs’ proposed bail package would include his signing a $50 million bond secured by his Miami home and co-signed by “three financially responsible people,” whose names were not identified. Combs would reside in Miami and limit travel to the southern district of Florida and the southern district of New York for attorney meetings. He would surrender his passport and be placed under the supervision of the U.S. Pretrial Services Agency, according to the filing.