For the third time, attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a decide Friday to grant the hip-hop mogul $50 million bail, this time saying he needs to be positioned in dwelling confinement in a three-bedroom residence bedrooms in New York City, Upper East. Side with 24 hour surveillance.
Federal prosecutors, nevertheless, stated Combs violated guidelines in a federal cell and “can’t be trusted” to contact witnesses on the skin. They additionally claimed he posed a “hazard to others”.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian postponed the choice till subsequent week.
Combs’ authorized workforce informed the decide it was proposing “rather more restrictive” circumstances than Combs faces in jail, together with limiting telephone calls to solely his attorneys, barring visits apart from a handful of named attorneys and members of the family and requiring 24-hour safety from an unbiased firm with a ban on contacting witnesses or potential witnesses. The protection had beforehand proposed dwelling detention at Combs’ Miami mansion, however the decide refused Friday as a result of it has a dock and entry to water.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible to expenses of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to interact in prostitution. He and his associates are accused of luring feminine victims, typically below the guise of a romantic relationship, and utilizing drive, threats, coercion and medicines to persuade them to interact in sexual acts with male prostitutes in people who Combs known as “freak-off”. “ He has been in federal custody for greater than 60 days since his arrest.
Federal prosecutors reiterated their opposition to granting bail to Combs, arguing that he would attempt to tamper with witnesses and affect potential jurors.
Prosecutors stated that on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn the place he’s being held, Combs violated communications and phone guidelines and was orchestrating contact with witnesses to purchase himself off the case with false testimony. The prosecutor stated he posed a “hazard to others” simply needing to succeed in a juror.
The decide requested prosecutors to elucidate why Michael Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, was in a position to get a $10 million bond on a intercourse trafficking and prostitution cost, however not Combs.
Combs’ attorneys famous that Jeffries allegedly paid dozens of males to journey throughout the United States and internationally to satisfy him and his co-defendants and have interaction in business intercourse acts. Jeffries can also be accused of utilizing a safety agency to surveil and intimidate witnesses who threatened to report his misconduct, but the federal government agreed to his dwelling detention.
Federal prosecutors, nevertheless, argued in courtroom and in a two-page letter to the decide that the circumstances are considerably totally different for a number of causes. Although Jeffries is accused of utilizing drive, fraud and coercion to interact males in non-consensual sexual activity, he isn’t dealing with the extra racketeering, firearms and assault expenses that Combs is.
Combs is accused of main an enterprise with a persistent sample of racketeering exercise from 2008 to 2024 that included Combs and his co-conspirators partaking in kidnapping, arson and compelled labor.
Combs’ alleged felony conduct, a prosecutor informed the decide, was extra akin to high-profile intercourse crimes circumstances during which defendants have been held in custody, as within the circumstances of NXIVM chief Keith Raniere, Larry Ray and R Kelly.
Combs’ attorneys additionally argued that the federal government distorted the now-infamous safety video of Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura on the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. A prosecutor stated they used the model first proven on CNN as a result of they did not need Combs or his attorneys to have the ability to establish the supply of the video and react.
The decide gave prosecutors and Combs’ attorneys till Monday to submit details about Combs’ communications from jail — a latest flashpoint within the case — earlier than he makes a bail determination.
