NEW YORK CITY — Lawyers for music mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs are seeking to have the court dismiss one of the counts of the indictments against him, arguing that the charge is used to “target Black men.”
In court papers filed on Tuesday to dismiss the charges, Combs’ attorneys said the statute has “racist origins” and cited cases involving Joe and Chuck Berry.
Combs was indicted by a grand jury in September on multiple charges including, sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, with the latter charge being the count Combs lawyers argued as “racist,” referring to the Mann Act of 1910, also known as the White-Slave Traffic Act.
“Mr. Combs has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished,” attorneys wrote in the filing.
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion to dismiss the charge.
More on the racism claims and allegations against Combs.
