In a new motion, attorneys for Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs are asking the court to dismiss Count Three of the Superseding Indictment.
Prosecutors filed an additional indictment against Diddy, who sits behind bars in Brooklyn on sex trafficking charges, adding a citation of the Mann Act — a law that prohibits the transportation of people for prostitution or criminal sexual activity. In the latest indictment, obtained by The Mirror, two additional women were added to the list of those that prosecutors claim Diddy coerced into sex acts.
However, the defense claimed that “Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.“
Diddy’s attorneys flagged the history of the Mann Act which was originally known as the White-Slave Traffic Act, calling it “racist in its inception” as they maintain it continues to be. They argued that the law itself has a “long and troubling history as a statute with racist origins, used to target Black men and supposedly protect white women from them.” They further claimed that using escorts is “common and indeed widely accepted in American culture today,” pointing toward its prominence in pop culture and on TV.
“No other person, and certainly no white person, has ever previously been prosecuted under the White-Slave Traffic Act for hiring male escorts from another State,” claimed the latest motion which asked the court to drop that particular part of the indictment.
The defense’s latest motion claims that “no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.” The motion, obtained by The Mirror, added: “There has never been a similar RICO prosecution. No white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar case.”
His attorneys expressed, as they have before, concern over bias in the jury pool which could affect the outcome of the case. They claimed that “the government’s handling of this case demonstrates bias and animus. It has gone out of its way to humiliate Mr. Combs and to prejudice the jury pool with pretrial publicity that plays on racist tropes. It has leaked damaging (and often times false) material to the press.”
Diddy continues to deny all allegations of wrongdoing against him. He pled not guilty to all charges.
