Prosecutors in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case have urged the judge to reject a request by the hip-hop mogul for acquittal or retrial on prostitution-related charges.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request after he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution – for flying girlfriends and male sex workers around the US and abroad for sexual encounters referred to as “freak offs” – at the end of his high-profile trial in New York.
He was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking. The trial would have been “totally different” if these charges had not been included, his defence team argued, saying they lacked credibility.
Now, prosecutors have responded to the request for the conviction to be thrown out, or for a retrial, saying in a court document that there was “ample evidence” presented during the trial that supported the jury’s convictions.
“[Combs] masterminded every aspect of freak offs,” the document says. “He transported escorts across state lines to engage in freak offs for pay. He directed the sexual activity of escorts… for his own sexual gratification. And he personally engaged in sexual activity during freak offs.”
The two transportation for prostitution charges Combs was convicted of fall under America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce related to prostitution.
The rapper’s lawyers have argued that, to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of these charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.
Combs’s reaction after hearing the verdicts following his trial. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” the defence team said in their submission to the judge for acquittal. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”
In their response, prosecutors said “evidence of the defendant’s guilt on the Mann Act counts was overwhelming”.
Combs, one of the most influential hip-hop producers of all time, is due to be sentenced in October. Each charge carries a potential jail sentence of 10 years.
He would have been facing a mandatory 15 years – and up to life – in prison had he been convicted of the charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, of which he was exonerated.
Read more:
How the trial unfolded
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Combs fell to his knees when the verdicts were read out, and his team later hailed it a “victory”.
The rapper has already served nearly a year at a federal jail in Brooklyn, where he has been since his arrest in September 2024.
He has been in contact with Donald Trump about a pardon, a source close to the rapper’s legal team told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News earlier this month, but the president has cast doubt on this actually happening.
Combs has been denied bail despite arguments by his lawyers that he should face little to no additional jail time for his convictions.
Judge Arun Subramanian, who heard the trial, said Combs has not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community”.
