Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs moves to dismiss federal charge, arguing statute’s ‘racist origins’

Sean "Diddy" Combs attends the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 15, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs are moving to dismiss one of the charges the embattled music mogul is facing, arguing that the currently incarcerated Combs has been subject to a racist prosecution — which prosecutors have previously denied.

“This case is unprecedented in many ways, but perhaps most notably, and most disturbingly, no White person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution,” Combs’ defence argued in a new motion, filed Tuesday evening.

“Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished,” the filing continued.

Combs’ attorneys are asking the court to drop Count Three in the superseding indictment against Combs — transportation to engage in prostitution — arguing that there has “never been a similar” prosecution under The Mann Act.

The Mann Act, which was previously called the White-Slave Traffic Act, was passed in 1910 to prohibit the transportation of women for prostitution and human trafficking.

As recently as 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffery Epstein, was convicted under the Mann act for transporting minors with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

CNN has reached out to prosecutors at the Southern District of New York for comment.

Attorneys for Combs have previously accused the government of racism. One of Combs’ lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, told TMZ in an interview last year that the case was a “takedown of a successful Black man.”

Prosecutors took issue with Agnifilo’s statements to TMZ, raising concerns in court.

“He baselessly accused the government of engaging in a racist prosecution,” one of the prosecutors told the judge at an October hearing, adding that the accusations posed a “serious risk” for a fair trial.

Combs’ attorneys argued that the statute has only been used to prosecute people of color, writing, “What was racist in its inception has often been racist in its operation.”

The charge of transporting escorts across state lines for purposes of prostitution is based on a law, his defence said, which has “a long and troubling history as a statute with racist origins, used to target Black men and supposedly protect White women from them.”

Combs is facing three federal charges, also including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is currently being held at a federal detention center in New York City.

Attorneys for Combs did not provide any additional comment to CNN on Tuesday evening, in regards to their latest filing.

Article written by Elizabeth Wagmeister and Kara Scannell, CNN