Nardine SaadBBC News, Los Angeles
Sean “Diddy” Combs and his lawyers returned to New York federal court on Thursday to ask a judge to vacate his prostitution convictions or grant a new trial.
Judge Arun Subramanian adjourned the hearing and did not immediately rule on the defence’s request.
The American music producer, who was accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, has been jailed since his arrest last September. He was convicted in July on two counts of prostitution.
Combs’ lawyers argue his convictions were a misuse of the Mann Act – a federal law that was passed to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women.
Combs is due to be sentenced on 3 October.
The rapper and music mogul faces up to 10 years in prison for each count.
But his legal team have proposed that he receive no more than a 14-month sentence. Since the rapper has remained in federal custody since September 2024, he would have already served most of his sentence.
Prosecutors, however, are seeking several more years.
Combs’ lawyers have also argued that he was unjustly convicted under the Mann Act and applying it is “unprecedented” because prostitution should apply when someone pays for sex – not to someone who watches, just as Combs is said to have done during his so-called freak-offs.
During Thursday’s hearing, Combs’ defence attorney Alexandra Shapiro portrayed him as a voyeur who enjoyed producing and watching amateur pornography, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner.
The judge asked the defence lawyer multiple times what that has to do with the Mann Act charges of transporting people prostitution.
They said that Combs had “no commercial motive” and that prosecutors on the case “have lost all perspective” by advocating for an enhanced sentence that is “wildly out of proportion”.
In a court filing, they said that Combs, 55, has been punished enough and “his life outside of jail has been systematically dismantled”.
“Mr Combs’s celebrity status in the realms of music, fashion, spirits, media, and finance has been shattered and Mr Combs’s legacy has been destroyed,” his lawyers said, adding that his seven children “desperately await his return to their lives”.
The Bad Boy Records co- founder waved to his supporters as he appeared in court again on Thursday.
If the court declines to grant an acquittal, his attorneys argued that a new trial is required due to “severe spillover prejudice from reams of inflammatory evidence”.
Combs was acquitted in July of the more severe racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges relating to his ex-partner Casandra Ventura and another woman referred to as “Jane”.
He was convicted on two lesser charges of arranging interstate travel for people engaged in prostitution.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Combs had arranged for paid sexual encounters between male sex workers and his girlfriends, some of whom testified about being beaten, kicked and choked by him.
The music mogul pleaded not guilty to all of the charges brought against him.
The judge has already twice refused to grant bail to the Grammy-winning artist.
