Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
- Sean "Diddy" Combs made a last-ditch bid Thursday to dodge sentencing on two prostitution convictions.His lawyers argued in court that all he did was watch and film the male escorts at his freak offs.Prosecutors reject his First Amendment claim, calling him a voracious consumer of commercial sex.
Sean "Diddy" Combs will learn soon if his last-minute, long shot bid to make his two prostitution convictions disappear will succeed, or if he'll be sentenced next week as scheduled.
The once-influential rap entrepreneur is hoping his judge will toss the convictions, which carry a potential combined maximum sentence of 20 years.
On Thursday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian concluded a 90-minute pre-sentencing hearing by promising a decision "very shortly."
"Very good arguments on both sides, and your papers were superb," Subramanian said in ending the hearing, which an upbeat-seeming Combs attended in khaki prison garb, but without shackles.
In court filings and again during Thursday's hearing, his lawyers have argued that Combs does not fit the standard understanding of a criminal under the Mann Act, the federal charge he was convicted of in July.
The Mann Act makes it a crime to cause people to cross state lines for purposes of prostitution.
Prosecutors argued that Combs did just that on hundreds of occasions between 2009 and last year, as evidenced throughout his six-week trial through witness testimony and hundreds of text messages and documents from hotels, airlines, and banks.
Throughout the trial, ex-girlfriend and R&B artist Cassie Ventura and a second ex who testified under the pseudonym "Jane" testified in detail that Combs used drugs, violence, and financial threats to ensure their continued participation in dayslong sexual performances with paid male escorts.
"Freak offs" was Combs' term for these highly-orchestrated and costumed performances, typically at a hotel suite, where Combs would masturbate, videotape, and give commands as his girlfriends had sex with a succession of sex workers.
The trial evidence showed that Combs footed the bill, thereby "causing" prostitutes to fly — sometimes coast to coast — to participate in commercial sex acts, prosecutors argued.
"Those freak offs — they were about one thing only, the defendant's sexual gratification," Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik told the judge Thursday.
Combs' lawyers countered that he never actually had sex with the male escorts, and you can't be guilty of prostitution if you're just watching.
Sex — even sex for hire — is pornography if you're just watching, they argued, and there's a constitutionally-protected, First Amendment right to film and watch porn, "including live porn," defense lawyer Alexandra Shapiro argued Thursday.
The Mann Act was misapplied in this case, the defense argued. It was enacted to prosecute pimps and johns — individuals who profit from the sexual exploitation of minors and sex-trafficking victims, the defense argued, calling Combs merely "an amateur pornographer" in court papers.
"There's really no substantial government interest in regulating private, consensual sexual activity protected by the Constitution," Shapiro told the judge Thursday.
The jury rejected the top counts of sex trafficking and racketeering, under which Combs would have faced a potential life in prison.
Prosecutors said in July that they plan to ask the judge to sentence Combs to at least five years in prison at a sentencing scheduled for October 3. Combs has asked for a time-served sentence, under which he could be released immediately.
