{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413371", "Federal prosecutors use Chris Smith\u2019s landmark law to bring sex trafficking and forced labor charges against Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs", "2024-09-25", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "In the recent high-profile indictment and arrest of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, federal prosecutors used a landmark law authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) to bring sex trafficking and forced labor charges against the rapper and music mogul. Among other crimes, Combs is accused of leading a criminal enterprise to facilitate his abuse and exploitation of women, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct for over a decade.\n\nPursuant to Smith\u2019s Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386), Combs could now face a maximum sentence of life in prison\u2014and a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison\u2014for sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.\n\nAt a press conference announcing the charges, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, credited the severe penalties provided by Smith\u2019s law, specifically noting that \u201cthe sex trafficking conduct carries some significant penalties, and we are gratified that we were able to bring that charge.\u201d\n\nSmith, who has authored five laws to combat human trafficking to date, said \u201cmy Trafficking Victims Protection Act created a new whole-of-government domestic and international strategy to combat sex and labor trafficking and established numerous new programs to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and to the extent possible, prevent it in the first place.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe legislation had its naysayers at the time, but the law has proven critical in locking up criminals that abuse and traffic in women and children,\u201d said Smith.\n\n\u201cThousands of human traffickers have been and continue to be prosecuted and jailed pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, including several charges brought against Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs, all of the charges brought against Jeffrey Epstein, and the infamous convictions involving the \u2018Smallville\u2019 actress Allison Mack,\u201d said Smith.\n\nSmith noted that the reforms included in his Trafficking Victims Protection Act represented a \u201csea change\u201d to the criminal code\u2014portions of which are cited by federal prosecutors in their indictment, such as Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591.\n\nAccording to the unsealed indictment, Combs \u201cknowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, maintained, patronized, and solicited by any means a person, knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion, as described in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(e)(2), and any combination of such means, would be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act\u201d (paragraph 16).\n\n\u201cOne of the reforms established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act included treating as a victim\u2014and not a perpetrator of a crime\u2014anyone exploited by a commercial sex act who had not attained the age of 18 and anyone older where there was an element of force, fraud or coercion,\u201d Smith said.\n\n\u201cAdditionally, my law radically reformed the U.S. criminal code to authorize asset confiscation and jail sentences of up to life imprisonment,\u201d said Smith, who noted that federal prosecutors included the forfeiture of Combs\u2019 property used to commit or facilitate sex trafficking in their indictment (paragraph 19).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413371"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5683360397815704, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}