Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs are shifting to dismiss one of many costs the embattled music mogul is dealing with, arguing that the at the moment incarcerated Combs has been topic to a racist prosecution — which prosecutors have beforehand strongly denied.
“This case is unprecedented in some ways, however maybe most notably, and most disturbingly, no White particular person has ever been the goal of a remotely related prosecution,” Combs’ protection argued in a brand new movement, filed Tuesday night.
“Mr. Combs has been singled out as a result of he’s a strong Black man, and he’s being prosecuted for conduct that commonly goes unpunished,” the submitting continued.
Combs’ attorneys are asking the courtroom to drop Depend Three within the superseding indictment towards Combs — transportation to interact in prostitution — arguing that there has “by no means been an identical” prosecution below The Mann Act.
The Mann Act, which was beforehand referred to as the White-Slave Site visitors Act, was handed in 1910 to ban the transportation of ladies for prostitution and human trafficking.
CNN has reached out to prosecutors on the Southern District of New York for remark.
Attorneys for Combs have beforehand accused the federal government of racism, which prosecutors strongly denied. Considered one of Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, instructed TMZ in an interview final yr that the case was a “takedown of a profitable Black man.”
Prosecutors took challenge with Agnifilo’s statements to TMZ, elevating issues in courtroom.
“He baselessly accused the federal government of participating in a racist prosecution,” one of many prosecutors instructed the choose at an October listening to, including that the accusations posed a “severe danger” for a good trial.
Combs’ attorneys argued that the statute has solely been used to prosecute individuals of coloration, writing, “What was racist in its inception has typically been racist in its operation.”
The cost of transporting escorts throughout state strains for functions of prostitution is predicated on a regulation, his protection stated, which has “a protracted and troubling historical past as a statute with racist origins, used to focus on Black males and supposedly defend White ladies from them.”
Combs is dealing with three federal costs, additionally together with racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty to all costs and is at the moment being held at a federal detention middle in New York Metropolis.
Attorneys for Combs didn’t present any extra remark to CNN on Tuesday night, with reference to their newest submitting.
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