_updates.jpg)
Sean "Diddy" Combs' legal team argued in court that their client should be freed from prison because his headline-making "freak-off" tapes were displays of amateur pornography instead of sex crimes.
The legal team, led by Alexandra Shapiro and Nicole Westmoreland, made the surprising argument during an appeal hearing before three federal judges in New York on Thursday, April 9.
They argued that the rapper was treated unfairly at his federal trial last year and that he deserves to be freed under the First Amendment.
According to Combs' lawyers, Diddy was wrongfully convicted under the Mann Act, a federal law banning the transportation of people across state lines for sex crimes, because he was recording amateur pornography, which is protected under freedom of speech.
"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," his lawyers argued.
However, federal prosecutors called the defence team's argument "meritless" because Combs is "entirely differently situated from adult film distributors".
Combs, who did not appear at Thursday's appeal hearing, was convicted of transportation for prostitution in July 2025 following his September 2024 arrest on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
He was only convicted on two counts and was acquitted of more serious charges.
Diddy was sentenced in October 2025 and was moved to a low-security federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the same month.
Last month, the disgraced music mogul's release date was pushed up from June 4, 2028, to April 25, 2028, after he was accepted into a drug-abuse rehabilitation programme in November 2025, which often leads to shorter prison sentences.
