Sean "Diddy" Combs is due to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing over his bid to set aside a jury's verdict finding the hip-hop mogul guilty on prostitution charges but clearing him of more serious counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs, 55, faces up to 20 years in prison if the 2 July conviction stands.
Jurors found he paid male escorts to travel across state lines to have sex with his girlfriends while he filmed and masturbated. He had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which could have landed him in prison for life.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) in Manhattan federal court. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the case, has not said when he will rule on Combs' motion.
Combs' lawyers urged Subramanian in a 30 July court filing to set aside the verdict because Combs did not himself have sex with the prostitutes or his girlfriends during the days-long, drug-fueled sex marathons sometimes known as "Freak Offs."
They also argued that Combs was filming the encounters as "amateur pornography," which they called protected speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office said in an 20 August filing that Combs need not have personally taken part in the sex acts to be convicted, since he helped arrange for the male escorts to travel.
They said he used the films as blackmail by threatening to release them if his girlfriends stopped taking part in the encounters.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, is credited with elevating hip-hop in American culture. He was arrested on sex trafficking charges on 16 September, 2024, and has since been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
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.
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 3 October, 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 29 September.
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Start your day informed with the AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top stories for the 3rd of July, covering the latest developments you need to know.
A Russian couple climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and unfurled a banner urging world peace before, in an apparent elaborate marriage proposal that ended with their arrests.
Iranian and U.S. negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said on Monday no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both sides tested the interim ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.
Iran and the U.S. have concluded indirect talks in Doha without a major breakthrough, with discussions focused on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and frozen Iranian funds. Both sides are expected to meet again after the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Qatar in Doha have concluded, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi has said.
On 1 July, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Azerbaijan on a working visit.
The closely guarded wedding of pop superstar Taylor Swift and famed NFL player Travis Kelce is speculated to take place in New York this week, with multiple media outlets and city officials pointing to Madison Square Garden as the venue.
Britain said on Tuesday (30 June) it could intervene in Paramount Skydance Corp’s proposed $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, potentially delaying one of the largest media mergers in recent years despite approvals from the United States, China and several other major markets.
Science does not usually have much to do with K-pop. But a postgraduate student in southern China has found a way to bring the two together, and the result is now permanently written into the scientific record.
The wife and children of Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo were among around 1,700 people who died when two earthquakes struck northern Venezuela last week.
Manhattan prosecutors have moved to drop a third-degree rape charge against movie producer Harvey Weinstein after his accuser said she no longer wished to testify. The decision ended what could have been a fourth New York trial in the long-running sexual assault case.
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