Looking at life in jail if discovered responsible in his intercourse trafficking prison trial, the a lot accused Sean “Diddy” Combs could also be dealing with much more fees, prosecutors admitted in the present day.
In a quick listening to earlier than federal Judge Arun Subramanian over quite a lot of discovery points, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson instructed the courtroom that she couldn’t say a lot in regards to the feds ongoing investigation. Remarking that the federal government had no plans to change the set trial date, Johnson did observe that “any extra fees could have little discovery data.”
While prosecutors within the lately resigned Damian Williams-run workplace have prompt additional indictments could possibly be coming, the just about informal manner a superseding indictment was introduced up in the present day signifies that extra fees are virtually sure. Otherwise, noting that “know-how is fickle,” AUSA Johnson promised the federal government would get extra materials to the protection as shortly as attainable. Johnson did say that every one materials and communications between “Victim 1” and Combs has already been delivered to the rapper’s authorized crew.
Arrested by the NYPD on September 16 in a Big Apple lodge foyer, Combs is charged with racketeering, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Currently already behind bars and repeatedly denied bail, the closely lawyered up Combs’ trial is ready to start out May 5 subsequent yr.
As he has been for all periods on this case, Combs was within the courtroom Wednesday and had a quick greeting dialog with the decide earlier than the 19-minute listening to started. Unlike previous hearings, Combs’ mom was not introduced, however a number of of his kids had been.
With the following listening to within the poisonous matter scheduled for March 17, Combs goes to remain locked down within the harsh Metropolitan Detention Center for not less than three extra months.
The authorities alleges that Combs and his aides coerced men and women into marathon sexual encounters, known as “freak offs,” with male prostitutes, and that the ladies had been drugged, threatened with violence and bodily barred from leaving the lodge rooms the place “freak offs” had been staged and videotaped. Among the handfuls of civil instances filed towards Combs in current months, the performer is alleged to have raped and assaulted minors as younger as 13-years-old.
Combs has repeatedly denied all the fees and allegations towards him.
The Bad Boy Records founder has formally given up on bail after three failed bids for pre-trial launch together with a proposal to place up a $50 million bond and confine himself to a rented Manhattan condo with non-public safety guards as displays. But his attorneys proceed to wage an aggressive protection on his behalf, attacking the federal government’s case as tainted by, amongst different issues, a prejudicial leak of footage aired by CNN that confirmed Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles lodge hallway in 2016.
Noted within the prison case towards Combs as “Victim 1,” Ventura truly set off lots of the authorized highlight on her ex when she sued him in November 2023 for rape and abuse. While Combs denied the whole lot, a few of which he walked again when the 2016 video grew to become public, he in a short time settled with Ventura for round $30 million, in response to well-placed sources.
Prosecutors and investigators within the case have signed sworn statements to Judge Subramanian saying they haven’t leaked any data. On Monday, the decide denied a protection movement for an evidentiary listening to on alleged authorities leaks and for added discovery.
Combs’ attorneys additionally objected to prosecutors buying protection paperwork from a search of Combs’ storage locker on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the place the “All About the Benjamins” rapper has been held since his arrest earlier this fall. Prosecutors stated that the raid at MDC was a part of a routine, pre-planned safety sweep of the jail by Federal Bureau of Prison brokers, and that Combs was not focused.
Judge Subramanian nonetheless ordered prosecutors to destroy all copies of just about 20 pages of fabric from the sweep, in a win for Combs. The decide has additionally ordered jail officers to not share Combs’ lawyer go to varieties with the federal government.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik argued that nothing within the paperwork was privileged however that it did include proof of “continued obstruction” by Combs, together with particulars about efforts to bribe or discover dust on authorities witnesses. The authorities additionally stated that Combs at one level was making an attempt to make use of different inmates’ telephone time to keep away from having his calls monitored, a declare the protection denied.
Even the phrases of Combs’ jailhouse entry to a laptop computer containing protection case supplies have been in dispute. The decide dominated final week that Combs can view the laptop computer every day between 8 a.m. and three:30 p.m. in his jail unit’s visiting room and video teleconference room.
On one other observe, in the present day noticed the feds drop fees towards Combs affiliate Brendan Paul, who was snared as part of the closely coated spring raids on the ‘Love’ performer’s L.A. and Miami houses by Homeland Security, the FBI and native police. Copping a plea, Paul was positioned in a drug therapy program, which he has now accomplished.
Still, for Combs, the onetime hitmaker-turned-mogul, whose rap, media and style empire was in free fall in recent times, continues to face dozens and dozens of civil fits — most filed by Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee. The flood of litigation has additionally ensnared one other New York hip-hop star, Jay-Z, who was accused in a lately refiled lawsuit with Combs of raping a 13-year-old lady in 2000 at a celebration after the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.
Battling Buzbee on a number of fronts, together with a submitting in the present day de facto accusing the Houston-based lawyer of doubtless destroying proof, Jay-Z a.ok.a Shawn Carter has denied the allegation and the “99 Problems” rapper’s attorneys known as the case a “sham.”
