Decoding the Sex Trafficking Case Against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. In an indictment unsealed yesterday, prosecutors accuse the music mogul—formerly known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy—of having “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
Combs was arrested on Monday and charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex trafficking, and one count of transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted on either of the first two counts, Combs faces life in prison, as both the racketeering conspiracy charge and the sex trafficking charge carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The sex trafficking charge also carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.
On Tuesday, Combs pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.
I can’t speak to whether the allegations against Combs are true. But reading the indictment, a few things jump out that I can comment on. The first is how—once again—the Mann Act rears its ugly head, making criminal what really should not be a crime. The second is how federal prosecutors are (once again) stretching the application of sex trafficking laws to conduct that goes beyond the sort of actions they were originally pushed to target. And the third is how the racketeering conspiracy charge opens up the government to seizing way more assets than they would otherwise be allowed to seize.
The Mann Act AllegationsÂ
The Mann Act was passed in 1910, during the country’s first sex-trafficking panic. Back then, white Americans fretted about what they referred to as “white slavery,” in which white girls and women were supposedly being forced into lives of sexual servitude. The idea then (and still prevalent now) was that no woman could possibly choose sex work for herself. So, the White-Slave Traffic Act—now called the Mann Act—banned taking females across state lines for prostitution or other immoral purposes. It also authorized the creation of the FBI.
With the Mann Act, the federal government was empowered to investigate and prosecute cases involving prostitution, something heretofore left up to more local decision making and enforcement. And it hasn’t looked back; the Mann Act is still very much enforced today, even though it’s since been joined by a host of other federal laws that invite the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations to look into cases involving commercial sex.
Merely transporting someone across state lines to engage in sexual activity should not be a crime. If there’s abduction or coercion involved, that is the criminal activity. We don’t also need a law criminalizing the mere transportation element. It’s like making opening the door to a bank during the commission of a bank robbery its own separate crime.
But the Mann Act lets federal prosecutors charge people whom they don’t otherwise have cause to arrest or, in situations like Combs’ case, to ratchet up the charges, perhaps in service of producing a plea deal.
Combs is charged with violating the Mann Act for allegedly making “arrangements for women and commercial sex workers to fly to [his] location.” The alleged sex workers involved were all men.
The indictment contains no allegation that he forced or coerced these sex workers into anything. But if he arranged for their travel, across state lines and internationally, the feds have him on a Mann Act violation.
Allegations of Sex Parties and Physical Assaults
So what about the other charges? Combs allegedly induced women to participate in sex parties he called “Freak Offs,” which the indictment describes as “elaborate and produced sex performances that COMBS arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.” For these parties, Combs would allegedly hire male sex workers for women to hook up with.
So far, so what? The only potential crime in all that is hiring the male sex workers. But soliciting prostitution is not a federal crime (though it is a state or local crime almost everywhere in the country). And it’s possible no one involved thought of this as prostitution. According to the indictment, Combs would frequently film the sex acts at these “Freak Offs.” Making porn is not illegal if all parties are consenting.
The indictment goes into some detail about these alleged sex parties. But while it’s heavy on lurid description, its light on actual criminal acts. It says the parties “sometimes lasted multiple days” and that those involved “typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion.” (Neither is illegal.) It says that Combs “distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims” and attributes to Combs a nefarious motive for doing this: “to keep the victims obedient and compliant.” But it doesn’t say that he forced anyone to do drugs or gave anyone drugs surreptitiously.
Even many of Combs’ alleged means of coercing women to participate in these parties are likely legal. They include activities that might well be controlling in certain contexts but not necessarily criminal—things like making “promises of career opportunities,” giving them financial support (or threatening to withhold it), “dictating [their] appearance,” and “monitoring their medical records.”
However, that’s not all that Combs is accused of doing. The indictment also says he used “the sensitive, embarrassing, and incriminating recordings that he made during Freak Offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
And it accuses him of having assaulted some of the women, “strikin
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