Diddy reveals VERY audacious excuse for freak-off tapes that could see him freed from prison TODAY
Sean 'Diddy' Combs is attempting to get out of jail today by defending his freak-off tapes as displays of amateur pornography and voyeurism rather than crimes.
Diddy was jailed in July for four years on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, after being acquitted for more serious offenses including sex trafficking.
Now, his defense team is trying to persuade a federal appeals court to overturn his conviction and release the rapper from prison immediately.
Attorneys Alexandra Shapiro and Nicole Westmoreland made Diddy's case in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York on Thursday.
Diddy was convicted of the prostitution crimes for arranging travel for escorts to engage in sex acts with his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and an anonymous woman, as shown on his so-called 'freak-off' tapes.
Prosecutors said he coerced the two women into having sex with male escorts, including by giving them drugs to sustain marathon sex sessions over several days.
However, his defense team is now arguing that the 'freak-off' tapes exhibit nothing more than performances of amateur pornography and voyeurism, which are protected by the First Amendment.
'Freak-offs and hotel nights were highly choreographed sexual performances involving the use of costumes, role play, and staged lighting, which were filmed so Combs and his girlfriends could watch this amateur pornography later,' they wrote in a court filing.
Sean ' Diddy' Combs is attempting to get out of jail today by defending his freak-off tapes as displays of amateur pornography and voyeurism rather than crimes
'Pornography production and viewing of this sort is protected by the First Amendment and thus cannot constitutionally be prosecuted.
'In other words, the term 'prostitution' in the Act should be limited to those situations where a paying customer engages in sex with the person being paid.'
They added that the term 'prostitution' should be interpreted narrowly to exclude what they portray as voyeuristic and expressive activity.
Attorneys for the Bad Boy Records producer said his conviction should be reversed, or he should at least be freed and resentenced to less time.
Prosecutors have scoffed at this, calling the defense team's argument 'meritless'.
'Combs is entirely differently situated from adult film distributors,' they wrote in a response filed February.
'He hired and transported commercial sex workers to have sex with his girlfriends for his own sexual gratification, sometimes directly participating in the sex acts.'
Diddy is currently being held in federal prison in New Jersey, and he did not appear at the hearing Thursday morning before a panel of three federal appellate judges.
Diddy was convicted of the prostitution crimes for arranging travel for escorts to engage in sex acts with his then-girlfriends, Cassie Ventura an an anonymous woman, as shown on his so-called 'freak-off' tapes. (Pictured: Ventura and Combs in April 2017 when they were together)
The lawyers also argue that Combs' sentence was too harsh, saying the trial judge wrongly based it in part on a conclusion that the crimes involved fraud and coercion and that Combs was a leader or organizer of criminal activity.
Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that carried the potential for a life sentence.
He was convicted under the federal Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime.
Combs' trial last year exposed the sordid private life of one of the most influential figures in music.
The case featured harrowing testimony about violence, drugs and sexual performances that witnesses said he called 'freak-offs' or 'hotel nights.'
He did not testify. His defense team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were straining to make a federal crime out of his personal life.
Combs, 56, has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he is scheduled for release in April 2028.
