Diddy has made an audacious request to be freed from prison before his sentencing with a $50million bail package.The hip hop mogul claims he doesn't pose a danger to the community and should be released ahead of October 3, when he will learn his fate after being found guilty of two prostitution offenses.
In order to be freed, Diddy is willing to file a $50million bond with the court, surrender his passport, limit his travel, undergo mental health and substance treatment and go under electronic surveillance with private security watching him at all times.
In a court filing, Diddy's lawyers said that the 'jury gave him his life back and he will not squander his second chance' by being violent.
The convictions mean that 'at worst' Diddy 'might be analogous to a 'John'' who engaged in a swinger's lifestyle, the document stated.
'Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct,' the filing states. 'In fact, he may be the only person currently in a United States jail for being any sort of john.'
Earlier this month, Diddy was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution after a blockbuster, nine-week trial in New York.
The jury found he arranged for male escorts to have sex with his ex-girlfriends, Cassandra Ventura and 'Jane', who testified anonymously, at sexual performances known as 'Freak Offs'.
But in a huge upset, Diddy was acquitted of the more serious counts, conspiracy racketeering and two counts of sex trafficking, which could have seen him jailed for life.
Diddy, 55, whose real name is Sean Combs, still faces up to 20 years in jail, though prosecutors have said that the guideline amount for a man like him with no criminal record should be closer to five.
The bail package will include the $50million bond secured by Diddy's home on Star Island, an exclusive celebrity enclave in Miami, his lawyers state.
Diddy will live there and only travel to New York for meetings with his lawyers, as well as to report to all his trial meetings.
The document states Diddy will surrender his passport and submit to any other rules the court decides to impose, such as home detention, private security, drug and mental health treatment and security watching over him.
According to Diddy's lawyers, there are 'several exceptional reasons' why he should be freed, starting with the law under which he was found guilty, the Mann Act of 1910.
The filing states that Diddy's case is 'unique' and that there has 'literally never been a case like this one, where a person and his girlfriend arranged for adult men to have consensual sexual relations with the adult long-term girlfriend as part of a demonstrated 'swingers' lifestyle.'
'It may not have been common on June 25, 1910, when the Mann Act, or as it was originally called, the White-Slave Traffic Act, was passed,' Diddy's lawyers argue.
'But attitudes about sex and morality have come a long way in the last 115 years.
'In the lifestyle that he and other adults voluntarily chose, Mr. Combs would be called a swinger.
'But in the vocabulary of the Mann Act or of prostitution generally, he might - at worst - be somewhat analogous to a 'john', someone who pays to have sex with a sex worker, in this case a male sex worker'.
If Diddy were to be released, he 'will not be violent to anyone', the filing states.
During the trial, there were only two instances of violence mentioned in relation to Jane, and Diddy admitted to his history of domestic violence against Ventura.
He would never 'do anything to further jeopardize his seven children not having a father, and four of his children not having a parent at all', his lawyers claim.
Diddy has been detained at the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his arrest last September, and his lawyers say that the conditions there are 'dreadful'.
'We are aware of ongoing threats of violence and actual violence in the facility, such that Mr. Combs' safety is constantly at risk', the document states.
Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the case, has already denied Diddy bail before his trial and denied him bail after his conviction, in part because of his admissions about domestic violence.
Prosecutors are now likely to respond to the request; previously, they have highlighted Diddy's efforts at witness tampering as reasons to keep him in jail.
The trial had promised to expose some of Hollywood's darkest secrets, and prosecutors painted a picture of a mob-like figure who threatened to kill people if they spoke out against him - and ran a 'criminal enterprise' that covered it up.
Diddy was accused of firebombing a love rival's car, dangling one of his ex-girlfriend's friends over a balcony and forcing a personal assistant to do five days of lie detector tests when some jewels went missing.
Had the woman failed, she would have been thrown in the East River off the coast of Manhattan, she claimed to have been told.
The core of the case was the claims from Ventura and Jane, who both claimed they were forced to take part in 'Freak Offs', where they had sex with a male escort while covered in baby oil, as Diddy would masturbate while directing them on what to do.
The jury was shown multiple clips of the Freak Offs, and one black female juror grimaced, while another put her hand to her face.
The X-rated material was not released to the public.
Until the trial, Diddy had been one of the biggest names in R&B and hip hop and won three Grammys during his decades-long career.
Among the artists that he helped to launch were Mary J Blige, Christopher Wallace - aka The Notorious B.I.G. - Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, whom Diddy once dated.
Diddy also had an empire outside of his music, including a deal with drinks giant Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Ciroc.
He released his fifth album in 2023 under the name 'Love' called 'The Love Album: Off the Grid' - Diddy won his first solo nomination for it at the Grammy Awards that year.

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