Federal prosecutors on Friday urged a judge to deny Sean “Diddy” Combs’ latest bid for release from jail, arguing his consistent rule-breaking shows he “cannot be trusted.”
In Manhattan federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said Combs had demonstrated he could not abide by “any conditions” of release.
He’s offered to put up $50 million and submit to 24/7 monitoring by a private security firm under home detention at an Upper East Side apartment without access to phones or internet.
So far, three judges have declined to let him out since his arrest on sweeping sex trafficking charges. Judge Arun Subramanian reserved issuing a decision Friday and said he would do so promptly.
“In order for conditions to be sufficient, there has to be some level of trust that the defendant will follow them,” Slavik said. “There’s no way to trust that any private security firm could actually do what the court requires and could actually ensure compliance.”
Referencing his monitored communications in jail, the prosecutor said Combs had made clear through his own words that “he’s a danger and he’s committed to concealing his crimes by any means necessary,” including trying to bribe witnesses.
She said he couldn’t even abide by the rules behind bars, noting he’d used prohibited methods of communicating with the outside world at Brooklyn MDC, including with his lawyers, and had directed associates to contact witnesses while, in essence, running a PR campaign from his jail cell.
“What we have here is the defendant’s concerted effort to affect the integrity of these proceedings,” Slavik said. “He is saying, I want to, quote, ‘Reach for this jury. I just need one.’”
At the hearing, Subramanian asked Combs’ team to explain why handwritten notes a federal investigator photographed in his cell were not labeled as “legal,” as they have claimed.
The judge took possession of the photographs from prosecutors earlier this week after Combs’ lawyers argued the notes were subject to attorney-client privilege, holding the physical copies up in court with the “legal” label the judge said was not pictured.
“The first time I actually saw the defense materials was when Mr. Combs brought them to court on Wednesday,” Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said. “As we sit here today, I’m not sure when ‘legal’ was written.”
Agnifilo said Combs’ six or seven notepads in jail now all say “legal” and insisted they contained information relevant to his defense strategies.
“All I’ll say is that, moving forward in this proceeding, please make sure that when representations are being made to the court, they are being made in good faith,” and are true, Subramanian said.
Slavik later said the discrepancies surrounding Combs’ notes showed his lawyers’ “inability to control their client.”
Turning to explosive footage of Combs assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, Slavik said Combs’ latest arguments that prosecutors edited it were a barefaced attempt to get rid of incredibly harmful evidence to his defense.
“He throws her to the ground, he kicks her, he drags her. That part was not edited,” the prosecutor said, noting Combs had even “admitted to it and he apologized for it.”
“This video is evidence that the defendant is a violent abuser and he’s a danger to the community,” Slavik said, noting Combs had tried to bribe hotel staff to delete it. “The defendant knows that this is devastating evidence against him at trial and this is why, your honor, he’s throwing anything at the wall to get this tape to go away.”
The surveillance video, first published by CNN in May, depicts a disturbing March 2016 incident in which Combs was seen brutally assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a hotel. He settled a lawsuit with Ventura for a reported $30 million in late 2023 and publicly apologized for the incident after the video’s release this year.
“It’s our defense to these charges that this was a toxic, loving, 11-year relationship,” Agnifilo later countered, describing it as a “consensual, long-term fraught relationship.”
The Bad Boy Records founder, brought into the courtroom just after 2 p.m., blew kisses to his mother and several of his children seated in the gallery and tapped his heart before hugging his lawyers. He wore beige prison garb over a white long-sleeved shirt.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and interstate transportation to engage in prostitution. The charges carrying a potential decades-long sentence accuse him of using his business empire to facilitate the sexual abuse and coercion of women he forced to participate in violent sexual performances called “freak offs.”
The feds say he directed and videotaped the performances and drugged his victims into compliance and that he and associates engaged in forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.
Combs’ lawyer Anthony Ricco said Combs would be detained under more restrictive measures on the Upper East Side than at the MDC because he wouldn’t have access to any phones, like contraband ones at the jail.
The bail proposal would see Combs monitored by Patriot Security Group and have no visitors except his lawyers and a handful of relatives approved by prosecutors and pretrial services.
Agnifilo proposed the three-bedroom Manhattan residence as a location for Combs to await his May 5 trial after the judge said there was no way he could do so on Star Island in South Florida.
“That’s not going to work,” the judge said.
