Combs asks judge to release him from jail

NEW YORK – Lawyers for Sean Combs asked a federal judge Tuesday to release him on a $50 million bond while he awaits sentencing for a federal conviction this month on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs, known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, was acquitted of more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy at the conclusion of a trial that lasted eight weeks.

After the music mogul’s conviction July 2, Judge Arun Subramanian of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied his lawyers’ request to have him released from detention pending his sentencing, saying Combs’ history of domestic violence showed that he could pose a danger to others.

During Combs’ trial, prosecutors argued that the executive acted as a kingpin of a criminal organization and that he coerced two long-term girlfriends to participate in ritualized sexual encounters with male escorts.

Had Combs been convicted of racketeering or sex trafficking, he could have faced life in prison. But the jury largely rejected the government’s portrayal of the famed producer, finding him guilty only of two prostitution-related counts under the Mann Act, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

In their motion filed Tuesday, Combs’ lawyers argued that the circumstances of his case justified his release. They described Combs’ case as “exceptional,” arguing, as they had at trial, that Combs and the women involved in the case had participated in a consensual “swingers” lifestyle that involved threesomes – and had not been coerced, as the government had charged.

”In the history of the statute,” the defense’s motion said, “the Mann Act has never been applied to facts similar to these to prosecute or incarcerate any other person.”

The defense also said the Mann Act, which was passed in 1910, had a history “rich with both racism and misogyny,” and that for the last 75 years it has primarily been used to prosecute cases involving “financial gain through the business of prostitution,” not against “johns” who make use of a prostitute’s services.

Combs’ legal team had made a similar argument to Subramanian immediately after his conviction, and offered to post a $1 million bond and restrict Combs’ travel to the areas around New York City, Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida, where he lives.

The new bond proposal of $50 million would be secured by Combs’ island mansion outside Miami, the motion said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.