Sean Combs' Lawyers Press Appeals Court To Toss His Prostitution Conviction And Sentence

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ineligible squad urged an appeals tribunal to overturn his condemnation and 50-month situation condemnation connected prostitution-related charges, arguing that nan judge who presided complete his proceedings past summertime was incorrect to see nan hip-hop mogul’s abusive conduct.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik, 1 of nan prosecutors down nan case, insisted that Combs’ four-year, two-month situation word was appropriate, and beneath national sentencing guidelines.

The three-judge sheet of nan 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals successful Manhattan did not instantly rule, arsenic is standard.

Combs was convicted past July connected 2 counts of interstate adultery but acquitted connected nan much superior charges of racketeering conspiracy and activity trafficking. The national prosecutors who brought nan lawsuit had accused nan hip-hop mogul of orchestrating a criminal strategy to unit women to participate successful drug-fueled, marathon intersexual encounters known arsenic “freak offs.”

He pleaded not blameworthy to each charges and denied wrongdoing.

His lawyers person based on that his intersexual encounters were consensual and blasted nan judge for acting for illustration “a thirteenth juror” during nan blockbuster trial, which spanned 8 weeks and featured schematic grounds from 2 of Combs' ex-girlfriends.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian “defied nan jury’s verdict” erstwhile he recovered that Combs had “coerced, exploited and forced” his girlfriends to person sex, nan defense lawyers wrote successful an 84-page tribunal filing successful precocious December. “These judicial findings trumped nan verdict and led to nan highest condemnation ever imposed for immoderate remotely akin defendant,” nan lawyers wrote.

It was not clear whether Combs’ defense squad objected to peculiar comments from Subramanian. In remarks astatine Combs’ sentencing, Subramanian said he had to see “all” of nan defendant’s history.

“You abused nan powerfulness and power pinch women you professed to love,” nan judge said. “You abused them physically, emotionally and psychologically.”

Slavik, speaking to nan appeals sheet Thursday, said that “even if Judge Subramanian made an correction successful his exertion and mentation of nan acquitted behaviour line — which we don’t deliberation he did — but moreover if he did, that correction would beryllium harmless.”

Combs’ lawyers person asked nan 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals successful Manhattan to acquit him, bid his contiguous merchandise from situation aliases nonstop Subramanian to trim his sentence. Combs is incarcerated astatine nan low-security Fort Dix national situation successful New Jersey and scheduled for merchandise connected April 15, 2028, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.

In an 83-page little revenge successful February, nan U.S. attorneys who charged Combs rejected his lawyers’ assertion that Subramanian was incorrect to see his “coercion and different acquitted conduct.” The prosecutors based on it was due to relationship for nan ways Combs violated nan Mann Act, a national rule that bars transporting group crossed authorities lines for prostitution.

“According to Combs, nan District Court should person closed its eyes to really he carried retired his Mann Act offenses and abused his victims — violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them, and plying them pinch drugs,” they wrote. “To do otherwise, Combs says, violated nan Constitution and was ‘unfair and unjust.’ Combs is wrong.”

Alexandra Shapiro, arguing for nan defense Thursday, said successful part: “This condemnation was nan highest condemnation ever imposed for a Mann Act defendant, sentenced nether nan aforesaid guidelines discourtesy level and criminal history category.”