REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
- A judge ruled that Sean “Diddy” Combs be jailed ahead of his criminal trial.
- Prosecutors argued his vast wealth and network could help him flee if he wanted to.
- He’s tried to bribe security and tamper with witnesses in the past, prosecutors say.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that Sean “Diddy” Combs be sent to jail ahead of his criminal trial after prosecutors argued that the music mogul could try to flee the country or attempt to meddle with the investigation of sex trafficking charges against him.
Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied that Combs be released on bond during a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
The judge cited Combs’s alleged history of violence, which prosecutors said was “both spontaneous and premeditated.”
“I don’t know that you can control yourself,” Tarnofsky said.
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Combs of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and illegal prostitution transportation. They allege he manipulated and pressured victims into participating in “Freak Offs” — elaborate “sex performances” that Combs masturbated to and recorded. Assistant US Attorney Emily Anne Johnson said at Tuesday’s hearing that prosecutors have obtained some of the videos through search warrants.
Combs wore a black T-shirt and sweatpants at the hearing. He was arrested at 8:25 p.m. Monday night at a hotel where he was staying, prosecutors said.
The rapper was marched into the courtroom by US marshals on Tuesday. When he sat at the defense table, his feet moved restlessly.
During much of the hearing, Combs kept a neutral expression and sipped occasionally from a Fiji water bottle. If he is convicted at trial, he could face life in prison.
At the hearing, Combs pleaded not guilty to the three felony charges against him.
At the afternoon court appearance, Combs’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, proposed a $50 million bond package to keep him out of jail before his trial. He held a stack of six passports — which he said belonged to Combs and five of his family members — and said the rapper planned to sell his private jet to illustrate he was not a flight risk.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said in their own letter filed to the court that Combs should remain incarcerated, arguing he has used his “vast wealth” to “ensure that his criminal conduct goes unpunished through manipulative and obstructive conduct.” Johnson compared Combs to Jeffrey Epstein, R. Kelly, and Keith Raniere — all people who have been kept incarcerated following their arrests on sex-trafficking charges in recent years.
In addition to being known as a rapper and record producer, Combs is a serial entrepreneur who’s founded fashion and media companies and was a brand ambassador for Cîroc vodka. Prosecutors pegged his wealth at about $1 billion and said he had a private jet and $1 million in cash on hand to flee the country if he wanted to.
“In short, if the defendant wanted to flee, he has the money, manpower, and tools to do so quickly and without detection,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Diddy tried to shut down witnesses, prosecutors say
Combs’ lawyer, Agnifilo, said at the hearing that the rapper had taken pains to update prosecutors on his whereabouts throughout the course of the investigation into his conduct. Combs avoided traveling overseas and even gave a heads-up when he went on a whitewater rafting over the summer, Agnifilo said.
Prosecutors said that if Combs were released, he could engage in witness tampering. Johnson said Combs and his associates have contacted witnesses in the investigation and tried to get them to change their stories, including “gaslighting” them so they’d adopt a different version of events.
Most of the bond Combs’ lawyers offered would have been backed by his Miami home, which they said was worth $48 million.
“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded, or run from a challenge in his life,” his lawyers wrote in their letter. “He will not start now.”
In the past, Combs has pressured security staff to stay quiet about his activities, prosecutors wrote.
After a March 2016 incident, where Combs “was captured on video surveillance striking, kicking, and dragging a woman in a public area of a hotel” — an apparent reference to the R&B singer Cassie Ventura — Combs tried to bribe hotel security, prosecutors said.
“When a member of hotel security staff intervened, the defendant attempted to offer the hotel security officer a stack of cash to ensure his silence,” prosecutors wrote. “After the security guard refused the defendant’s bribe, and after coordination between the defendant and his employees, the defendant’s staff contacted other members of hotel security.”
At the hearing, Agnifilo tried to characterize the “Freak Offs” and Combs’s relationship with Ventura as fully consensual. He said their 10-year relationship was “mutual in their toxicity” and that the two had cheated on each other multiple times.
“This ‘sex-trafficking’ was a 10-year relationship,” Agnifilo said. “These were two people in love.”
According to Agnifilo, Ventura wanted to extract a $30 million payment from Combs to buy her silence about their relationship history. The lawyer said that after Combs settled a civil lawsuit that Ventura filed in November 2023, there was a “bandwagon” of other lawsuits against Combs.
In their letter, prosecutors that Combs’ abuse has continued despite being under criminal investigation.
“The defendant has continued to physically assault and threaten those around him, including his romantic partners, his employees, and others who happened to be present when he succumbed to fits of rage,” prosecutors wrote. “No bail conditions can address the defendant’s tendency to become violent when angry or emotional: anyone in his presence is at risk of abuse or assault.”
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