The rapper’s lawyers are claiming their client is protected under the First Amendment.
Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs have filed a new motion to overturn the rap mogul’s convictions, claiming that his notorious sex parties known as “freak-offs” were legal pornography shoots protected by the First Amendment, Billboard reports.
During his trial in May and June of 2025, the jury acquitted Combs of three charges of sex crimes and racketeering and convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Now, Diddy’s lawyers are arguing that the remaining charges, which come with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, should be discarded.
The motion argues that the freak-offs do not fall under the definition of prostitution. “Sean Combs sits in jail based on evidence that he paid adult male escorts and entertainers who engaged in consensual sexual activities with his former girlfriends, which he videotaped and later watched with the girlfriends,” the motion says. “That is not prostitution, and if it is, his conviction is unconstitutional.”
The videotaped freak-offs, the motion continues, were actually pornography movies that should enjoy constitutional free speech protections. “He was producing amateur pornography for later private viewing,” his lawyers claim. “This is protected First Amendment conduct that no substantial government interest justifies prohibiting, since the films depicted adults voluntarily engaging in consensual activity.”
In 2023, Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura was the first of many women to come forward with allegations against the rapper when she filed a civil suit alleging that she was raped and abused during their relationship. Combs was arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in September 2024. During his trial earlier this summer, prosecutors accused Combs of running a criminal enterprise that used kidnapping, drugs, bribery, and other methods to orchestrate the “freak-offs.”
On July 29, Combs’ lawyers filed a different motion to free him on a $50 million bond; it remains under consideration. President Trump is also reportedly considering granting him a presidential pardon, according to a Deadline report.