What is the Mann Act? Here's what to know about the law used to convict Sean 'Diddy' Combs

Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted Wednesday of prostitution-related offenses under the federal Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking law with a century-old history.

Though he was acquitted of more serious charges, Combs was still convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in paid sexual encounters.

Over the years, the law has been applied to prominent convictions, including R&B superstar R. Kelly, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, musician Chuck Berry and more than a century ago, boxer Jack Johnson.

Its broad wording and a subsequent Supreme Court interpretation once allowed prosecutors to bring cases against interracial couples, and eventually many others in consensual relationships, according to Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.

The law was amended in the 1980s and today it is primarily used for prosecuting interstate prostitution crimes or people accused of taking underage children across state lines for sexual purposes.

Here's what to know about the law.

In 1910, Congress passed the bill, which was named after Republican U.S. Rep. James Robert Mann of Illinois.

It’s also known as the “White-Slave Traffic Act” of 1910.

Combs was convicted of counts involving two former girlfriends: the R&B singer Cassie and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.

Both women said at trial that Combs had pressured them into degrading sex marathons with strangers, who were paid for the sexual performances. Jane said she was once beaten by Combs for declining to participate. Cassie said that when she tried to walk out of one such event, Combs beat her and dragged her down a hotel hallway.

Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges but convicted of transporting people to engage in prostitution.

The 1910 law originally prohibited the interstate or foreign commerce transport of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” It followed a 1907 congressionally appointed commission to look into the issue of immigrant sex workers, with the view that a girl would only enter prostitution if drugged or held captive, according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.

The law was used to secure a conviction against Jack Johnson, who became the first Black boxer to win a world heavyweight title in 1910. Johnson was convicted in 1913 by an all-white jury for traveling with his white girlfriend, who worked as a sex worker, in violation of the Mann Act.

(President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Johnson in 2018, saying Johnson had served 10 months in prison “for what many view as a racially motivated injustice.”)

In a 1917 Supreme Court case, the justices ruled that “illicit fornication,” even when consensual, amounted to an "immoral purpose,” according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.

A 1986 update made the law gender-neutral and effectively ended the act’s role in trying to legislate morality by changing “debauchery” and “immoral purpose” to “any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.”

The act received additional amendments in 1978 and 1994 to address issues of sexual exploitation of children.

Nevertheless, Combs ' legal team made a motion last February to dismiss a Mann Act charge, writing that the law “has a long and troubling history as a statute with racist origins."

Prosecutors said there was nothing racist about pursuing charges under the act. Most of Combs' accusers are people of color.

FILE - Boxer Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight champion, poses in New York City, 1932. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - R&B singer R. Kelly, center, arrives at the Leighton Criminal Court building for an arraignment on sex-related felonies in Chicago, June 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky, File)

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center, May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

In this courtroom sketch, Sean "Diddy" Combs, rights, leads his family in a prayer before the verdict was read, convicting him of prostitution-related offenses but acquitting him of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Manhattan federal court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz by his Monday deadline and Tehran called his threat “unbalanced and foolish." The search for a missing U.S. military pilot continued Saturday in a remote part of the Islamic Republic.

Trump has called Tehran “beaten and completely decimated " in the war, now in its sixth week, but the downing of two U.S. warplanes on Friday and Iran’s call to find the “enemy pilot” have again raised the stakes.

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country's joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

“We will continue to crush them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, and confirmed that Israel's military struck a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr that he said helps to fund the war. Five people were killed and 170 injured, Iranian state media reported, citing a provincial security official.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said that 198 workers were being evacuated. It was the fourth time the facility was targeted.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track" after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Trump reminded Iran of his deadline in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them."

The U.S. warplane, identified by Iran as a F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday. Iran’s joint military command on Saturday said that it also struck two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, but the AP couldn’t independently verify that.

The search for the U.S. pilot focused on a mountainous region in Iran’s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police.

In an email from the Pentagon, obtained by the AP, the military said that it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East. A U.S. crew member was rescued. The Pentagon notified the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member wasn't known.

Trump told NBC News that what happened wouldn't affect negotiations with Iran.

A second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It wasn't clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down, or whether Iran was involved.

Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iran’s defense forces.

The Dubai offices of tech company Oracle was hit after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm. Footage verified by the AP outside the UAE showed a large hole in the building's southwestern corner.

The sheikhdom’s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, noted a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade," saying there were no injuries. Oracle Corp., based in Texas, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Guard has accused some large U.S. tech companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and called them legitimate targets. Amazon Web Services facilities in the UAE and Bahrain were hit in earlier drone strikes.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and there have been more than 1 million displaced people. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

Jon Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Samy Magdy from Cairo. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington, contributed to this report.

A displaced family, who fled Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon, make a bonfire next to a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People raise their hands during a protest calling for an end to the war in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

People raise their hands during a protest calling for an end to the war in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A worker cleans an area within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex, with the mosque visible in the background, that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Followers of Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans as they wave national Iraqi flag during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Travelers arrive to cross into Turkey at the Razi border crossing, in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026.(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Israeli security forces inspect damage at an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A photographer takes pictures of damage at Shahid Beheshti University after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Friday in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Travelers approach on foot the border crossing with Turkey at the Razi crossing in Razi, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A row of chairs is seen through a hole left by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Friday at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Iraqi women hold a portrait of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in the Shi'ite district of Kazimiyah in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A woman checks a destroyed house that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)