Jury Mostly Exonerates P Diddler

I haven't followed this, but I think they got this mostly right. Half of the charges I didn't even understand. It was like Jack McCoy on Law & Order, portrayed as a crusader hero for twisting the law to fit iffy facts. Half of the fictitious people he convicted had actually committed no actual crime.

Or much like the J6 prosecutors did, coming up with strained theories about "parading" being part of a "conspiracy to defraud the United States."

There's no doubt that this guy is an absolute degenerate pervert, and a weird gay dude into cuck fantasies, but unfortunately we've pretty much made simple sexual degeneracy legal, or even approved by the state.

Diddler was found guilty of two minor charges of paying for prostitutes to cross state lines. The "crossing state lines" is what gives this law some kind of a federal pretext. Usually prostitution is handled by state courts, and usually it's not seriously prosecuted.

He was found not guilty on all of the serious charges, like some kind of a RICO charge -- I guess they argued that he was the head of a criminal syndicate to commit "Freak-Offs" -- and two counts of sex trafficking.

Hip-hop icon Sean Combs was stunningly acquitted Wednesday on federal charges of forcing his former lovers to live out his degrading sexual fantasies -- but found guilty of lesser prostitution raps.

Combs, better known by his stage name Diddy, dodged charges that carried a possible life sentence after a two-month trial that revealed twisted details about the mogul, including his preference for "freak-offs" -- watching his girlfriends have grueling, drug-fueled sex romps with male escorts.

The embattled entrepreneur, 55, had faced life in prison after being charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

But a jury convicted him only of prostitution charges stemming from shipping the escorts across state lines, which could send him to prison for up to 20 years.

Jurors had deliberated for 13 hours total over three days, leading to a dramatic scene in a Manhattan federal courtroom Tuesday morning.

Combs nodded his head repeatedly as the verdict was read out and pumped his fist as the jury cleared him on a sex-trafficking charge, saying "thank you" for being cleared on the most serious charge.

He then held his hands in the prayer gesture and waved them in the direction of the jury approvingly

The jury ultimately found Combs guilty of two Mann Act Transportation counts, which are prostitution charges, each carrying a maximum prison term of 10 years.

If you're charging someone with the Mann Act you're pretty desperate.

Megyn Kelly is angry about the judgment, and insists Diddy should have been convicted for sex trafficking. Based on her reportage, apparently the prosecutors tried to prove that Diddler's "girfriends" -- or whatever they were -- were "sexually trafficked" because Diddler sometimes hit them and otherwise exerted his will over them.

In other words, she's arguing that two grown-ass women were incapable of simply leaving. She's arguing that they were essentially kept in captivity for sex, and hence, "sex trafficked."

But they weren't. They were not held against their will. They were free to come and go whenever they liked. At any time, they could have hired a lawyer to sue him or bring charges against him for assault.

But they stayed (until they didn't). Kelly argues that the fear of Diddler hitting them constituted some kind of physical/psychological prison they were kept in.

There are some women I'd say could be said to be "trafficked" even if not kept in cages. I can definitely see children being so intimidated by a man that the man can be convicted of sex trafficking even if they're allowed mostly free movement. I can see illegal alien women transported by criminals for sexual purposes. Even if they're free to walk around and go where they like, I could see an argument that they would feel imprisoned by the people who smuggled them into the country. I could see them feeling that their smugglers have leverage over them. And they also might not know that American cops are responsive to citizen complaints. They won't just yell at you and tell you to go back to your husband (or owner) and be a better concubine, as they might in some countries.

There are American women who know that American cops actually will investigate your claims, and that any lawyer would love to sue Diddler to extract money from him.

I can understand why the jury bought the defense's claim that these women could come and go as they wanted but stayed because they liked the lifestyle and the huge amounts of money Diddler spent on them. I have a hard time agreeing that if a woman chooses to stay with a man, for whatever crazy or corrupt reason, that man can be prosecuted for "trafficking" them.

Trafficked to where? To whom? The whole idea of the charge is that women and children are being taken from their homes and brought to an alien and frightening new land are put to work in actual prostitution. These women were born in America and continue to live in America. They are not isolated and alone in America. They know their way around, and they know how to leave a man if they want to.

If Diddler hit these women, absolutely, prosecute him for assault. But I can't see how he becomes, basically, a kidnapper when the women don't leave.

But again, I didn't follow the case closely. You may have a very different view. If I've missed something, let me know.

Below, Megyn Kelly is angry. She says that Diddler wasn't prosecuted for assault because the statute of limitations had passed long ago.

But... I'm sorry, but that means you can't bring that case. You can't do a Jack McCoy and twist the law to fit the facts to let you prosecute the charge under a different name.

As for the arson-- I completely forgot this was a charge. Or was it? Did the statute of limitations run on that, too, so they re-cast it as part of a RICO charge to overcome the statute of limitations?

I'm just reflexively opposed to this type of shenanigans. Yes, the law imposes limits on prosecutors. That's a feature not a bug.

posted by Ace at 12:13 PM

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