(Bloomberg Law) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ is planning an appeal arguing the federal prostitution statute he was convicted under wasn’t meant to apply to run-of-the-mill clients of adult escorts like himself, Combs’ lead attorney told Bloomberg Law.

For example: Eliot Spitzer. The former New York governor was “a regular client of the Emperor’s Club’—the escort ring Spitzer patronized—’and they didn’t prosecute Spitzer at all, who was arguably in the exact same position as Combs,” Combs lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in an interview Tuesday. “So it makes the point with a tangible example that they don’t typically prosecute these kinds of cases.”

Combs, who was accused of hiring sex workers for his so-called “freak-off” parties, was convicted under the Mann Act, a century-old law that prohibits the interstate transportation of an individual for commercial sex. Spitzer was investigated for hiring prostitutes before then-Manhattan US Attorney Michael Garcia declined to prosecute him.

Spitzer apologized for his actions and resigned in 2008. (He didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Agnifilo said the team is preparing appellate arguments questioning whether the statute “should remotely apply to essentially a john—someone who uses the services of a sex worker, someone who’s not making money from the business of prostitution.”

“Whether it be someone from Cowboys 4 Angels, or one of the porn stars,” Combs, the sex workers, and his girlfriend “were adults and willing, enthusiastic participants,” said Agnifilo, a former prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. “There were no victims.”

He said most Mann Act cases involve children, enticing an unwilling participant, or someone “essentially being a pimp.”

On the state level, Agnifilo added, many big cities have stopped prosecuting buyers of adult commercial sex, or respond to those arrests by “helping people who have fallen into that lifestyle” through treatment programs.

Combs was acquitted earlier this month of two charges carrying life sentences—sex trafficking and racketeering—but convicted on two counts of transporting prostitutes. Each prostitution count carries 10 years, but Combs isn’t expected to get the maximum.

Agnifilo said Combs’ legal team will argue that time served is a reasonable sentence—Combs has been incarcerated at a notorious Brooklyn jail since September. “There’s no world where he’s going to get 20 years, because the sentencing guidelines just won’t permit that,” he said.

The music mogul is currently in a battle to be released ahead of his Oct. 3 sentencing. Judge Arun Subramanian told prosecutors to respond by Thursday to Combs’ latest request for release, this time offering to post a $50 million bond secured by his Miami home.

But Combs’ legal team—which also includes Teny Geragos and Brian Steel—is looking ahead to appealing the convictions. That could change, however, depending on how light or severe Combs’ sentence is. The team is also planning to first ask Subramanian to toss the guilty verdict.

After the verdict, then-prosecutor Maurene Comey argued Combs should be kept in jail. “He’s an extremely violent man with an extraordinarily dangerous temper who has shown no remorse and no regret for his multiple victims,” Comey said.

Subramanian denied Comb’s request to be released right after the verdict, noting the defense had conceded Combs engaged in domestic violence.

The legal team that prosecuted Combs has changed since then. The lawyer who oversaw the case, Jackie Kelly, left for Boies Schiller Flexner. Comey, who also worked on the government’s prosecution of Ghislane Maxwell, was ousted, telling colleagues she was “summarily fired” by the Justice Department.

Agnifilo said despite battling it out in court, “Maureen Comey is a really great lawyer and we became friendly during the course of the case. I was very sorry to see what happened to her. I think she’s being scapegoated and treated horribly unfairly.” A DOJ spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

For now, Combs is at the Metropolitan Detention Center. The facility, which previously housed Sam Bankman-Fried, is also where Luigi Mangione is being jailed as he faces murder charges in the shooting of a UnitedHealthcare executive.

Agnifilo said he doesn’t believe Combs has met Mangione—another client of Agnifilo’s firm, Agnifilo Intrater—because they’re in different parts of the jail, but “I think they’d enjoy speaking to each other.”

If Combs gets out, “he wants be a better person,” Agnifilo said. Asked if Combs wants to return to music, he said, “When you’re sitting in the MDC, your dreams are a little more measured.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Vilensky at mvilensky@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sei Chong at schong@bloombergindustry.com

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