Sean “Diddy” Combs Scores A Win As Sex Trafficking Case Prosecutors Ordered To Destroy Material Obtained In Raid On Jail Cell
Prosecutors in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking case have just been ordered by a New York judge to destroy all copies of almost 20 pages of material obtain in a recent raid of the much accused and incarcerated performer’s jail cell.
In a win for the ‘All About the Benjamins’ performer, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District have also been told by Judge Arun Subramanian that the material or even excerpts from it cannot be used in any form in an upcoming bail hearing for Combs later this week.
In a nearly 90-minute hearing Tuesday, the prosecutors and the defense battled over the nature of documents seized from Combs in the October sweep at the Metropolitan Detention Cente. The embattled and much accused rap mogul has been held in the Brooklyn venue since his September 16 arrest in the lobby of a Manhattan hotel.
As well as facing a flood of civil suits, Combs is charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution for drug-fueled and videotaped “freak offs.” The 55-year-old could face life in prison if found guilty in a trial set to start on May 5, 2025.
As Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Christine Slavik argued most of the material obtained in the incursion last month on Combs’ cell in the famously harsh facility was not privileged, the once high flying defendant was present for today’s proceedings. Unlike the last hearing in this case, he was not in restraints Tuesday, thanks to Judge His mother, several of his children and other family members were in the room at NYC’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse Tuesday.
With the defense having failed to get a gag order on witnesses or see the case tossed out on allegations of government leaks, the road to that trial is looking increasingly to be full of potholes. Certainly, the raid on Combs’ cell in October and the subsequent material that was accessed by investigators has given the Bad Boy Records founder a wedge to claim his rights to a fair trial and First Amendment protections were infringed upon.
In a filing on November 15, current U.S. Attorney Damian Williams revealed prosecutors had prison notes and recordings of the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer’s alleged “relentless efforts” to pay off potential witnesses, making non-permitted outside calls and trying to “blackmail” other potential witnesses.
“While attempting to evade law enforcement monitoring, the defendant has, among other things, orchestrated social media campaigns that are, in his own words, aimed at tainting the jury pool; made efforts to publicly leak materials he views as helpful to his case; and contacted witnesses through third parties,” according to the memo from Williams opposing Combs’ third and latest bid to be released on bail — which is scheduled to be the subject of a third bond hearing on November 22.
A heavily redacted record of an October 4 call between the imprisoned Combs and “one of his adult sons” has “the clear inference that the defendant’s goal is to blackmail victims and witnesses either into silence or providing testimony helpful to his defense,” prosecutors wrote.
“The Government did not previously disclose these recordings due to its ongoing investigation, but is doing so now given the recent escalation in the defendant’s efforts to influence the jury pool in this criminal case,” prosecutors added in a footnote. The feds also noted that the photographed material had been vetted by a “Filter Team” before prosecutors looked at it and items like an envelope with the term “legal” on it was untouched.
Still, doing their job, defense attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Tony Geragos have charged that some of the materials seized are privileged lawyer-client communications, “including the defendant’s own written notes,” they wrote in a memo on Monday to Judge Arun Subramanian.
“This search and seizure are in violation of Mr. Combs’ Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights,” the lawyers wrote in their successful bid for today’s hearing. In a filing earlier today, they wrote that prosecutors have provided them with nineteen pages of materials documenting contents of Mr. Combs’ storage locker at the MDC, and say the documents show the prosecution “has already started using these privileged materials to its advantage, including its opposition to bail.”
Among the records turned over to the defense were photographs taken by an investigator of “intact pages from two different legal pads, (ii) pages of an address book, (iii) a ripped- out, folded-over page of a third legal pad, (iv) a ripped-out page of another legal pad and (v) a ripped-out page of yet a different legal pad,” today’s defense letter stated.
They also wrote that “the Government has committed an egregious, willful, and harmful breach of the attorney client privilege, and has become privy to defendant’s and defense counsel’s trial strategy, including areas of expert testimony, witness strategy, and other confidential matters.”
In its earlier filing, prosecutors asserted that the material was gone through by an independent “Filter Team” to screen out privileged information. Also at issue is whether the sweep was at federal prisons “nationwide,” as prosecutors previously claimed, or just at the Brooklyn facility holding Combs, which the feds admitted was the case in a November 18 document.
Judge Subramanian at this afternoon’s session said he will hold on to the contested documents himself and schedule hearings on whether prosecutors can ever use them or if, by having them, they violated Combs’ right to a fair trial. Slavik argued that the documents not only contain no privileged information but are instead notes about family birthdays and personal finances. The AUSA also noted that alongside what she said were details in the documents of efforts by Combs — beyond the scope of attorney-client privacy — to bribe or find “dirt” on witnesses in the case. Additionally Slavik told the court the papers are part of an ongoing grand jury inquiry into Combs that includes what the government alleges are his efforts to obstruct the investigation.
Defense attorney Agnifilo, said in court that his client’s notes are the result of extensive conversations between with his lawyers, and were tucked inside a legal pad with the word “legal” handwritten on it. He said that the full-jail sweep of the Brooklyn facility where Combs is in custody was likely a “pretext” targeting his client, not a search for all prisoners contraband such as drugs or cellphones. Agnifilo also said that if the judge agrees with him, he could seek remedies ranging from forcing the government to replace all the prosecutors to throwing out the indictment.
That’s last time bomb is for another day, as the Judge said today.
And remember, Tuesday’s hearing was in many ways a sideshow.
After an explosive and very quickly settled rape and abuse suit from ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura last year, Combs is still facing a growing list of civil cases. Even with promising to put up a bail of $50 million, promising home detention and not talk to anyone but family and his lawyers, Combs has struck out twice already in his desire for pre-trial release in this criminal case.
Whether his third court swing later this week proves anymore successful, with more restrictions as recently promised by the defense, is anyone’s guess.
In terms of today’s hearing, late Monday night, Agnifilo and Geragos wrote to Judge Subramanian requesting that Combs not be brought into court in shackles “because such shackling prejudices the potential jury pool, undermines hispresumption of innocence, interferes with his ability to communicate with counsel, and offends the dignity and decorum of the proceedings.”
As prosecutors sought to defuse accusations that material was incorrectly lifted from Combs’ cell in the BOP raid, Judge Subramanian agreed with the defense request to have their client unshackled early this morning
The case is further complicated by the fact that Williams is planning to leave his post after President-elect Donald Trump announced a new pick to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. No sense yet from incoming SDNY US Attorney and ex-SEC chair Jay Clayton if he plans to change anything about the office’s pursuit of Trump’s former party pal.
On the other side of the country, Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee was taken to court on Monday in California by “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Los Angeles” who alleges the Lone Star attorney is trying to shake him down with threats of being involved in Diddy’s drug and abuse filled so-called “freak offs.”
The filing in LA Superior Court by Michael T Lifrak and Mari Henderson of the high priced Quinn Emanuel firm for their famous client says Buzbee has “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him.” The Houston-based Buzbee, who has already filed nearly a dozen lawsuits for what he has said is over 120 clients claiming to be Combs’ victims, took to social media on November 18 to slam what he characterised as a“last-ditch attempt to stop me from revealing names in public lawsuits”.
“We won’t allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers to intimidate or silence sexual assault survivors,” Buzbee added. “On behalf of two clients who allege sexual assault, we sent a standard demand letter to a New York lawyer that we know represents an alleged perpetrator and potential defendant,” the attorney went on to say, with a “laughable” swipe at the John Doe filing. “The letters were sent seeking a confidential mediation in lieu of filing a lawsuit,” Buzbee noted. “No amount of money was included in the demand letters. No threats were made. The demand letters sent are no different than the ones routinely sent by lawyers across the country in all types of cases.”
