Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, facing federal sex trafficking charges, has been moved out of solitary confinement at the notorious MDC Brooklyn jail, the Daily News has learned.
Combs, who was indicted Tuesday on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, was initially placed in the special housing unit, or SHU, which is SOP for high-profile detainees when they first arrive. He has since been moved to the jail’s East Side, sources tell The News.
A source familiar with the jail said that the “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” rapper is getting along well with the corrections officers there. He’ll likely be wearing the standard issue brown jump suit and will only be entitled to one new pair of sneakers a year, in line with prison rules.
But Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has asked he be moved to a jail in New Jersey, telling reporters Wednesday, “I’m not going to let him sit in that jail a day longer than he has to.”
Agnifilo unsucessfully tried to get Combs released on $50 million bond at his arraignment Tuesday and again at a bail hearing Wednesday, and plans to appeal his detention with the U.S. Second Circuit. He did not return messages seeking comment Thursday.
In the meantime, the jail’s handbook offers a glimpse of what Comb’s daily routine will look like.
Combs will be waking up at 6 a.m., and his bed must be made by 7:30 a.m. He will have to be by that bed for head counts each day.
“The inmate is expected to be standing at bedside during official counts held at 4:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., on weekdays and 10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays, and during any emergency count,” the handbook reads.
As for clothing, he’ll likely wear a regulation brown jumpsuit. Combs was known for his high-end sneakers, but his style will be limited in lockup. He’s allowed a new pair of sneakers once a year, and can only request through a jail staff member if he wants them replaced early because of “wear and tear.”
Judges and defense lawyers have long complained about hellish conditions, extensively reported on by The News, at the severely-understaffed MDC Brooklyn. The jail has seen several violent assaults and two stabbing murders in recent months, inmates complain of spoiled and infested food, and staff at the jail have been accused of ignoring serious and at-times life-threatening medical issues.
Often, high-profile inmates are placed in the SHU when they first arrive at MDC Brooklyn before the jail can determine where to place him a source said.
The East Side of the jail has four housing units open and in use on its third and fourth floors.
MDC Brooklyn is the city’s only remaining federal jail, after the 2021 closing of the Manhattan Correctional Center —where pervert financier Jeffrey Epstein completed suicide two years earlier. It has housed other high-profile defendants, including disgraced R &B star R. Kelly, Epstein-enabler Ghislaine Maxwell, “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accuse Combs of flying sex workers across state lines and forcing women he dated to have sex with male prostitutes during marathon, drug-fueled sex parties he called “Freak Offs.”
If they didn’t want to partake, he would verbally and physically abuse and harass them, then “used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings as collateral,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams told reporters Tuesday.
When investigators searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, federal investigators found more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant, images and videos of the Freak Offs, and three defaced AR-15 assault weapons with a large-capacity drum magazine capable of holding 59 rounds, Williams said.
Judge Andrew Carter said at the bail hearing Wednesday that Combs’ vast resources meant that no conditions of release would be adequate to blunt the risk of his tampering with witnesses.
“The government has proven a danger of obstruction and witness tampering and a danger to the community in general,” Carter said.
