“I can’t speak to whether the allegations against Combs are true. But reading the indictment, a few things jump out that I can comment on. The first is how—once again—the Mann Act rears its ugly head, making criminal what really should not be a crime. The second is how federal prosecutors are (once again) stretching the application of sex trafficking laws to conduct that goes beyond the sort of actions they were originally pushed to target. And the third is how the racketeering conspiracy charge opens up the government to seizing way more assets than they would otherwise be allowed to seize.”
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“Merely transporting someone across state lines to engage in sexual activity should not be a crime. If there’s abduction or coercion involved, that is the criminal activity. We don’t also need a law criminalizing the mere transportation element. It’s like making opening the door to a bank during the commission of a bank robbery its own separate crime.
But the Mann Act lets federal prosecutors charge people whom they don’t otherwise have cause to arrest or, in situations like Combs’ case, to ratchet up the charges, perhaps in service of producing a plea deal.
Combs is charged with violating the Mann Act for allegedly making “arrangements for women and commercial sex workers to fly to [his] location.” The alleged sex workers involved were all men.
The indictment contains no allegation that he forced or coerced these sex workers into anything. But if he arranged for their travel, across state lines and internationally, the feds have him on a Mann Act violation.”
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“So what about the other charges? Combs allegedly induced women to participate in sex parties he called “Freak Offs,” which the indictment describes as “elaborate and produced sex performances that COMBS arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.” For these parties, Combs would allegedly hire male sex workers for women to hook up with.
So far, so what? The only potential crime in all that is hiring the male sex workers. But soliciting prostitution is not a federal crime (though it is a state or local crime almost everywhere in the country). And it’s possible no one involved thought of this as prostitution. According to the indictment, Combs would frequently film the sex acts at these “Freak Offs.” Making porn is not illegal if all parties are consenting.
The indictment goes into some detail about these alleged sex parties. But while it’s heavy on lurid description, its light on actual criminal acts.”
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“it doesn’t say that he forced anyone to do drugs or gave anyone drugs surreptitiously.
Even many of Combs’ alleged means of coercing women to participate in these parties are likely legal. They include activities that might well be controlling in certain contexts but not necessarily criminal—things like making “promises of career opportunities,” giving them financial support (or threatening to withhold it), “dictating [their] appearance,” and “monitoring their medical records.”
However, that’s not all that Combs is accused of doing. The indictment also says he used “the sensitive, embarrassing, and incriminating recordings that he made during Freak Offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
And it accuses him of having assaulted some of the women, “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.”
Several women have previously accused Combs of sexual assault. And at least one video was made public last fall of Combs punching and kicking Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer who goes by Cassie. (Ventura sued him in civil court, saying Combs had raped her, physically assaulted her, and forced her to have sex with other men while he filmed. The suit was settled a day after Ventura filed it.)”
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“We’ve got one charge for something that should not be a crime (transportation of willing adults). Even if Combs did this, it should not matter, morally or legally.
Then we’ve got allegations of the sort of violence and abuse that definitely should be illegal—albeit not the purview of the federal government. If Combs did these things, they are both morally abhorrent and should be prosecutable under state criminal laws.
Then we’ve got this third, murkier business—the sex parties—that it’s hard to know what to make of.
And this murky third element is the thing that the federal government really needs to justify this case. It’s the area where the indictment has devoted the most attention, and also where the lines between legal adult activity and criminal sex trafficking are blurry.”
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” According to the indictment, Combs used his “power and prestige,” along with “the pretense of a romantic relationship,” to “lure” women to him. So…he was a rich and famous dude who women were drawn to and he maybe used that to his sexual advantage? That may be cad-like behavior, but it is not (nor should it be) illegal.”
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“the alleged trafficker—Combs—is accused of paying money to consenting sex workers and using force or coercion to find sex partners for them. It’s not the sex workers who are allegedly being trafficked but the people whom the sex workers are paid to have sex with.”
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“Is that really sex trafficking? It seems like prosecutors are once again stretching the definition.
Sex trafficking statutes were enacted with a promise of stopping forced prostitution. But prosecutors and people bringing civil lawsuits have found all sorts of creative ways to use them, hurling sex trafficking allegations at social media websites, software companies, and sex workers themselves, as well as people engaged in a wide array of odd or bad behavior adjacent to sex”
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“Combs may well have engaged in some nasty, abusive, and criminal behavior. But things can be nasty, abusive, and even criminal without necessarily being sex trafficking.”