- Sean Combs isn’t scheduled to leave his Brooklyn jail until his next court date in two months.
- Meanwhile, teams of lawyers and prosecutors, plus a trio of judges, are working on the case.
- In the coming days, their efforts may yield a new indictment, a gag order, and a bail decision.
Sean “Diddy” Combs isn’t due back in court on his Manhattan sex-trafficking indictment until December 18.
Meanwhile, Combs’ future is being charted behind the scenes by federal prosecutors, defense lawyers, and a trio of judges tasked over the coming days with drafting possible new charges, a gag order, and a bail decision.
Here’s what’s expected next in the case, which alleges that since 2009, the millionaire rap entrepreneur used force and threats to sexually abuse “women and others around him,” including at drug-fueled parties called “freak-offs.”
An attorney for Combs declined to comment on the pending matters. The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan did not respond to a request for comment.
Possible new charges: weapons and drugs
Combs maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty to three federal charges: racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution (for allegedly causing female victims and commercial sex workers to cross state lines). The charges carry a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, and the top possible sentence is life.
Twice denied bail on a defense offer of home confinement and a $50 million bond, Combs remains for now in a federal jail in Brooklyn, where he can strategize with his lawyers about his scheduled May 5 criminal trial and a growing number of sexual abuse lawsuits.
Last week, at his third and most recent court appearance, prosecutor Emily Anne Johnson hinted that Combs could be summoned out of jail and back to court at any time before his next date — for a second arraignment.
“Our investigation is continuing,” Johnson told US District Judge Arun Subramanian. “There is a possibility that there will be a superseding indictment.”
Johnson did not say if a grand jury is hearing new evidence, and she gave no specifics on the potential new charges. Federal prosecutors have signaled they are looking at weapons and drug charges.
Prosecutors alleged at a bail hearing last month that federal agents seized three AR-15 rifles with defaced serial numbers when search warrants were executed at Combs’ homes and a Florida airport back in March. Two of the weapons were found broken down into parts in the bedroom closet of Combs’ $48.5 million Miami mansion, they said. Two magazines with a total of 29 rounds of high-caliber ammo were also in the closet, they allege.
When defense attorney Marc Agnifilo suggested during bail arguments that the weapons belonged to Combs’ security, Johnson, the prosecutor, had this to say:
“I don’t dispute that Mr. Combs has used armed security,” she said. “But it is incredulous that armed security in a professional security company would use defaced AR-15s and store them in pieces in the defendant’s personal closet.”
“That,” she added, “is absurd.”
During the same September 17 bail hearing, Johnson also told the judge that when Combs was arrested at his Manhattan hotel on the previous night — “at a time when he should be on his very, very best behavior” because he knew he was under investigation — agents recovered from his room “bags of pink powder that are visually similar to bags of pink powder that we have seized before from the defendant that have tested positive for ecstasy and other drugs.”
Combs’ indictment alleges he gave ecstasy, ketamine, GHB, and other so-called party drugs to his victims “to keep them obedient and compliant.”
Agnifilo suggested the drugs were for Combs’ personal use, telling the judge that his client had previously checked himself into rehab for drug treatment and, at the time of his arrest, was undergoing “therapy for things that, most respectfully, he needs treatment and therapy for.”
Possible new defendants: Combs’ “associates”
A new, or superseding, indictment, if one comes, could name new defendants, a possibility that prosecutors have also alluded to in court filings and bail arguments.
The indictment’s racketeering charge alleges the Bad Boy Records founder ran a conspiracy prosecutors call “The Combs Enterprise.”
“The defendant arranged Freak Offs with the assistance of members and associates of the Enterprise, including employees of his business,” prosecutors wrote in a September 17 bail memo.
Over the years, these unnamed assistants used bribes, violence, and threats to keep victims and potential witnesses in line, including “resorting to kidnapping and arson when the defendant’s power and control were threatened,” the bail memo alleges.
Prosecutors say these associates also purchased and distributed drugs, made sure the freak-offs were stocked with lubricants and extra linens, and then cleaned up afterward.
Ample supplies were stocked away for future freak-offs, prosecutors allege.
“Over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and personal lubricant” were seized at one search warrant location, federal prosecutors said in one of the bail memo’s most memorable details.
A gag order
Prosecutors and defense lawyers have accused each other of making or condoning potentially jury-tainting public statements. One of the few things they now agree on is that a gag order is a good idea.
The judge last month ordered the sides to work together on the wording of such an order for his consideration.
In a related matter, the defense has accused prosecutors of looking the other way as Department of Homeland Security agents involved in executing the Combs search warrants in March leaked explicit and prejudicial details to the press.
Prosecutors have countered that they are not involved in any leaks and that Agnifilo has himself made prejudicial statements to the press, including by telling TMZ last month that the Combs prosecution is “the takedown of a successful Black man.”
The judge has ordered the sides to file briefs on the defense’s demand for an evidentiary hearing on the leaks.
Agnifilo wants the hearing so that allegedly “leaked” evidence can be excluded from trial. That would include hallway surveillance footage from the Intercontinental Hotel in LA revealed by CNN in May. The footage shows Combs punching and kicking his then-girlfriend, singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, after a freak-off in March 2016.
A bail decision
On October 2, Combs filed a sealed motion with a federal appellate court in Manhattan seeking to overturn his two lower-court bail denials.
Agnifilo argued that Combs and his family members preemptively gave him their passports and that Combs cooperated with prosecutors pending his arrest. He has also challenged the credibility of key witnesses and argued that the conduct charged in the indictment was consensual.
“There’s 30 million reasons for this to be depicted as a one-sided thing — one for each dollar that he was being sued for,” Agnifilo told a magistrate judge at Combs’ first court appearance, referring to a quickly-settled lawsuit filed against him by Ventura in November.
In fighting pretrial release, prosecutors have countered that Combs is a flight risk due to his wealth and his access to his private plane. They have also argued that he is a danger to the community due to his volatile temper and past violence, and that he has a history of contacting witnesses. They have yet to file a response to Combs’ bail appeal.
The appellate court has already denied Combs’ request to remain free while a three-judge panel decides the appeal.
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