Sean "Diddy" Combs faces up to 20 years in jail after a judge declined to overturn his conviction, Fox News reported.
The 55-year-old hip hop mogul will be sentenced Friday after U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said the prosecution "proved its case many times over." Combs had asked the judge for a new trial and to toss out his convictions on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces up to 10 years for each count.
"That by itself might be enough to dispose of Combs’s challenge. But the other factors don’t do much to help Combs either," the judge wrote.
Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, which could have sent him to prison for life.
Prosecutors had accused Combs of running a criminal enterprise that involved forcing women to engage in degrading sex acts with male escorts. He was found guilty on two lesser counts for transporting his ex-girlfriends to engage in prostitution.
During Combs' eight-week trial, his lawyers acknowledged the rapper engaged in physical abuse, but they insisted the key prosecution witnesses, Cassie Ventura and a woman who went by the pseudonym "Jane," had consented to sex sessions that Combs often filmed, which were called "freak-offs."
Combs was convicted under a century-old human trafficking law, the Mann Act, which made it a crime to transport women and girls across state lines for prostitution and other "immoral" purposes.
Ahead of the trial, Combs' attorneys tried to dismiss the charges by arguing the Mann Act has "racist origins." The original broad wording of the law was at one time used to prosecute interracial couples, but it was later amended to primarily target sexual exploitation, particularly of children.
After Combs was found guilty, his attorneys sought to beat the convictions by characterizing Combs as a voyeur or pornographer. The verdict, they said, violates Combs' First Amendment rights.
"We are talking about adults having a threesome, bringing another adult into their private sex life," Alexandra Shapiro, one of Combs’ defense lawyers, told Subramanian at a hearing.
Ultimately, the defense's various arguments failed to convince the judge.
“Illegal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected activity,” the judge wrote, dismissing Combs' free speech argument.
Combs' lawyers have asked for 14 months in prison, saying the time he has already served is enough punishment.
Prosecutors have sought over 11 years in jail, arguing the penalty should reflect Combs' lack of remorse and his years of abusive behavior.
