NATIONAL NEWS

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks judge to throw out guilty verdicts or grant him a new trial

Jul 31, 2025, 12:37 PM

In this courtroom sketch, flanked by defense attorneys Teny Geragos, left, and Brian Steel, right, ...

In this courtroom sketch, flanked by defense attorneys Teny Geragos, left, and Brian Steel, right, Sean "Diddy" Combs, center, reacts after he was denied bail on prostitution-related offenses, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Manhattan federal court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Sean “Diddy” Combs has asked a judge to throw out his guilty verdicts on prostitution-related counts or grant him a new trial, saying such convictions are without precedent.

“This conviction stands alone, but it shouldn’t stand at all,” the Wednesday filing said.

Combs’ lawyers argue that his two felony convictions were a unique misapplication of the federal Mann Act, which bars interstate commerce related to prostitution,

“To our knowledge, Mr. Combs is the only person ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct anything like this,” a Wednesday filing from Combs legal team said.

Combs, 55, was convicted in a New York federal court of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, for sexual encounters, while he was acquitted of more serious charges. He could get up to a decade in prison at his sentencing set for Oct. 3.

His lawyers argued that none of the elements normally used for Mann Act convictions, including profiting from sex work or coercion, were present here.

“It is undisputed that he had no commercial motive and that all involved were adults,” The filing said. “The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily. The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted.”

The lawyers said that Combs, “at most, paid to engage in voyeurism as part of a ‘swingers’ lifestyle” and argued that “does not constitute ‘prostitution’ under a properly limited definition of the statutory term.”

Combs was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, charges could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures in prison for life.

The new motion asks Judge Arun Subramanian to vacate the jury’s verdict, or to order a new trial whose evidence is limited to matters related to the Mann Act counts, because of “severe spillover prejudice from reams of inflammatory evidence” related to the more serious counts.

Prosecutors insisted during the eight-week trial that Combs had coerced, threatened and sometimes viciously forced two ex-girlfriends to have sex with male sex workers to satisfy his sexual urges. They cited multiple acts of violence he carried out against them as proof that they had no say.

A day earlier, Combs’ team asked the judge to free him on a $50 million bond while he awaits sentencing in October after a jury found him not guilty of the most serious federal charges he faced earlier this month.

His lawyer argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are dangerous, noting that others convicted of similar prostitution-related offenses were typically released before sentencing.

Subramanian previously denied a request that Combs be released on bail while he awaits sentencing, citing a now-infamous video of Combs beating a former girlfriend and photographs showing injuries to another ex-girlfriend.

The judge has not yet ruled on either of this week’s motions.

National News

Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, center, whose husband, Rami Othmane, a Tunisian musician, is detained at the U....

Associated Press

A Tunisian musician was detained in LA after living in US for a decade. His doctor wife speaks out

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dr. Wafaa Alrashid noticed fewer of her patients were showing up for their appointments at the Los Angeles area hospital where she works as immigration raids spread fear among the Latino population she serves. The Utah-born chief medical officer at Huntington Hospital understood their fear on a personal level. Her husband […]

4 hours ago

FILE - People wait outside of Glass House Farms, a day after an immigration raid on the facility, F...

Associated Press

Appeals court keeps order blocking Trump administration from indiscriminate immigration sweeps

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday night to uphold a lower court’s temporary order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in Southern California. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing Monday afternoon at which the federal government asked the […]

5 hours ago

Abeer and Fadi Sobh gather in their tent with their children at a camp for displaced Palestinians i...

Associated Press

From dawn to dusk, a Gaza family focuses on one thing: finding food

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Every morning, Abeer and Fadi Sobh wake up in their tent in the Gaza Strip to the same question: How will they find food for themselves and their six young children? The couple has three options: Maybe a charity kitchen will be open and they can get a pot […]

7 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of ...

Associated Press

After a reference to Trump’s impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo

NEW YORK (AP) — It would seem the most straightforward of notions: A thing takes place, and it goes into the history books or is added to museum exhibits. But whether something even gets remembered and how — particularly when it comes to the history of a country and its leader — is often the […]

7 hours ago

FILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (A...

Associated Press

DeSantis set a Florida record for executions. It’s driving a national increase

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — In the final moments of a life defined by violence, 60-year-old Edward Zakrzewski thanked the people of Florida for killing him “in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible,” breathing deeply as a lethal drug cocktail coursed through his veins. With his last breath, strapped to a gurney inside […]

8 hours ago

Devon Wells, a junior at Perry Central High School, welds a metal calf feeder at Halo Farms, where ...

Associated Press

Rural US high schools are offering more college-level classes, but college can still be a tough sell

PERRY, N.Y. (AP) — As a student in western New York’s rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn’t part of his plan. […]

8 hours ago

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks judge to throw out guilty verdicts or grant him a new trial