Sean “Diddy” Combs is seeking to dismiss at least one of the charges against him in a federal indictment filed last year.
Attorneys for Diddy, 55, filed a motion to dismiss count three of a September 2024 indictment that charges him with transportation to engage in prostitution.
In a Tuesday, February 18, court filing, obtained by Us Weekly, the star’s attorneys argued that “no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution” under the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women and girls across state lines for immoral purposes, such as prostitution.
“There has never been a similar RICO prosecution. No white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar case,” the motion states. “Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.”
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The motion further alleges 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,” the motion alleges.
Diddy was arrested in September 2024 and is awaiting trial on charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. A 14-page indictment unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office claimed that Diddy “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him” for decades.
The third count of the indictment, transportation to engage in prostitution, alleges that “from at least or about 2009, up to and including in or about 2024” Diddy knowingly transported “female victims and commercial sex workers” across the U.S. “on multiple occasions with the intent that they engage in prostitution.”
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The disgraced music mogul pleaded not guilty to the allegations against him last September before being remanded to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of his trial date, which is slated to begin in May. He was also denied bail following four separate appeals.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo told Us in a statement at the time. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”
The statement concluded, “To his credit, Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
