Sean ‘Diddy' Combs was convicted on prostitution transportation charges under the Mann Act. Here's what to know about the 1910 law
The Mann Act, enacted in 1910 and originally known as the 'White-Slave Traffic Act,' criminalizes transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution.
Its language, which legal scholars have defined as vague, has led to controversial prosecutions, including against Black champion heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson in 1913.
It was more recently used in high-profile cases, including against R&B singer R. Kelly and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime confidante of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Here's what we know:
According to the original text of the Mann Act, an individual could be convicted for transporting a woman or girl across state lines 'for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.' But the original language around an 'immoral purpose' was considered vague – and meant the law was used to punish consensual sexual activity and common sex work, often against Black defendants. It was removed from the act by an amendment in the 80s.
The law's broad wording and subsequent Supreme Court interpretation once allowed prosecutors to bring cases against 'unlawful premarital, extramarital, and interracial couples,' according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.
In 1913, an all-White jury convicted Johnson under the Mann Act for transporting a White woman – reported to be his girlfriend – across state lines.
Johnson served just under a year in prison, and the conviction derailed his career. President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned him in 2018.
The Mann Act has since been amended several times and now criminalizes transporting any person across state lines 'with intent that such individual engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.'
Combs' defense argued in February the Mann Act has a racist history, claiming he was targeted for being a powerful Black man.
'What was racist in its inception has often been racist in its operation,' his attorneys said in a court filing, claiming no White person had faced a similar prosecution.
Prosecutors denied allegations of racism, arguing that most of Combs' accusers are people of color, the Associated Press reported. 'He baselessly accused the government of engaging in a racist prosecution,' one of the prosecutors told the judge at an October hearing, adding that the accusations posed a 'serious risk' for a fair trial.
The aim of the mogul's attorneys was to get the transportation to engage in prostitution charges dismissed.
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted under another provision of the Mann Act for transporting minors with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
She was also found guilty of charges including sex trafficking of a minor and three other charges relating to conspiracy.
Maxwell, who helped set up a scheme to lure young women into sexual relationships with Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year sentence.
R. Kelly, the disgraced R&B singer who is currently serving a 30-year sentence, was also convicted in 2021 of eight counts of violations of the Mann Act, after he was found guilty of using his fame to ensnare victims he sexually abused. He was also convicted on one charge of racketeering.
CNN's Dakin Andone, Lauren del Valle, and Nicki Brown contributed to this report.
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'If you only apply material solutions, which we tend to do—we see a person who's starving and give them food; we see a person who's homeless and give them a home—we haven't actually solved the core problem,' he argued. 'And it becomes, in the long run, a band-aid solution.' Wayfarer estimated it was the first significant donor for 15% of grantees. Grantees' annual budgets were usually around $1 million and always less than $5 million, meaning they often relied heavily on Wayfarer, which bequeathed more and smaller awards than was typical for a private foundation of its size. Its 152 recipients in 2023 received an average of $127,804. 'It goes back to the entrepreneurial spirit that Steve has,' the foundation's former executive director, Laura Herrick, told Forbes last year. 'He has seen so often what can happen when somebody invests in a project early on, and the impact that it can make.' 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'At times, my biggest frustration is feeling like I'm an ATM and not a human being,' he told Forbes last year. Many of those previously funded by Wayfarer who hadn't submitted their renewal applications before the buzzer are scrambling. 'We'd just started the conversation with them to fund us again,' says Takisha Miller, executive director of Chocolate Milk Café, which organizes lactation support for African diaspora families. But she hadn't yet applied. 'So we're not promised anything. Which is why it's unfortunate—like, 'Aw man, one more month…'' Organic Oneness founder Syda Segovia Taylor's renewal application was denied, but Sarowitz has assured her that he will continue to fund her in some way privately. She remembers learning of Wayfarer's closure during a break at her annual board gathering. 'I was like, 'Okay, you guys, our safety net is not as thick or as wide as we thought,'' she says. 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