Sean “Diddy” Combs and his legal team are trying everything they can to get the disgraced music mogul out of jail.
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In a new court filing on Sunday, Diddy’s defense attorneys argued that evidence federal prosecutors obtained through searches of the rapper’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami must be suppressed because the warrants that authorized those searches were unconstitutional.
According to reports from ABC News, the defense argued the warrant applications for the Combs’ houses, iCloud accounts, phones, and more excluded facts and “presented a grossly distorted picture of reality.” The defense motion does not publicly reveal the specifics of what prosecutors allegedly omitted, but said the warrant applications eliminated important context that the magistrate judge who approved them should have seen.
“But it worked — the government got its warrants, leaked damaging information, and then executed its military-style raids at Combs’s residences,” defense attorneys said in the filing, according to the outlet. “Here, rather than giving the reviewing magistrate a fair summary, the government hid exculpatory evidence to bolster its case.”
The defense went on to argue that some of the most salacious details recounted in the search warrant applications came from an unnamed Producer-1 whose accusations “were never credible.” While the specifics of what Producer-1 told investigators is redacted, the defense said he “had relayed stories about his time working for Combs.”
This motion sought to suppress all evidence obtained through these searches or grant a hearing to examine the government’s conduct in obtaining the warrants. In a similar effort, Diddy’s lawyers are criticizing his federal indictment for using a “racist” law against him.
In a Tuesday filing, USA Today reports lawyers for Combs filed a motion to dismiss his transportation to engage in prostitution charge, arguing “no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution.”
The producer’s defense team goes on to argue that “there has never been a similar RICO prosecution,” and the federal charges have largely been based on “allegations that Mr. Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party — a male escort — into their sexual relationship” from another state.
Among the several federal charges against Combs is a violation of the Mann Act, officially known as the White-Slave Traffic Act. This makes it illegal to transport people across state or international lines for the purpose of prostitution, which Combs’ lawyers argue has a history of racial bias that rarely results in prosecution.
Diddy’s legal team says the law was historically “used to target Black men and supposedly protect white women from them,” adding that people like Jim Crow-era boxer Jack Johnson and Chuck Berry have been accused under the act, which targets “black male sexuality” and accuses them of “deviant sexual behavior.”
“No other person, and certainly no white person, has ever previously been prosecuted under the White-Slave Traffic Act for hiring male escorts from another State,” the U.S. Southern District of New York filing reads. “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 goes on to claim that using male or female escorts is “common” and “widely accepted,” noting the company Combs allegedly used for this service – which was redacted – is a “legitimate commercial business.”
The post Diddy’s Lawyers Aim To Suppress Evidence In New Filing While Slamming Feds For Using ‘Racist’ Law ‘Used To Target Black Men’ appeared first on Bossip.
