Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to remain in custody after judge denies bail appeal in racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking case

CNN

By Kara Scannell, Dalia Faheid and Emma Tucker, CNN

New York (CNN) — Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in federal custody ahead of his trial on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges after his lawyers failed Wednesday to appeal a judge’s decision to deny him bail.

Prosecutors had argued he was at risk of obstructing the case, and in his ruling Wednesday, Judge Andrew Carter said there were no conditions that reduced the risk of witness tampering or obstruction.

The hip-hop artist is facing charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday.

Combs, 54, faces a sentence of up to life in prison if convicted. His next court appearance was scheduled for October 9. Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo told CNN he will again appeal the ruling.

“I’m not going to let him sit in that jail a day longer than he has to,” Agnifilo said. When asked about Combs’ apparent lack of reaction to the ruling, Agnifilo said: “He’s a stoic guy in his manner. He’s been through a lot in his life.”

Prosecutors allege Combs created and ran a “criminal enterprise” through his business empire that engaged in crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, according to the federal indictment.

The music mogul was being held by himself at the Special Housing Unit in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to a law enforcement official, after another judge denied bail Tuesday.

Prosecutors opposed releasing Combs on any grounds, telling the court he has attempted to tamper with witnesses and saying “the risk of danger is acute.” They pointed to an alleged cache of weapons found in the closet of Combs’ bedroom and his access to millions of dollars in bank accounts and cash that make him a flight risk.

To try to sway a federal judge to release Combs while he awaits trial, his lawyers submitted a new bail package Wednesday that proposed to restrict all female visitors to his home who are not family members and limit all visitors to his Miami properties.

The proposed bail package also included a $50 million bond co-signed by Combs, his mother and several family members; surrender of his passport; home detention; weekly drug testing; and a visitor log to be submitted nightly to pretrial services.

But at the start of Wednesday’s hearing, Carter said the package did not provide reasonable assurance Combs would return to court.

“My bigger concern deals with the danger of obstruction of justice and the danger of witness tampering,” said Carter.

Combs’ attorney proposed putting in place additional “strenuous and maybe unusual conditions” to address the judge’s concerns, including that Combs have no access to a cell phone or internet and to have an intelligence firm staffed with former state and federal officials monitor the residence 24 hours a day. “Any witness intimidation would be completely nullified,” he said in court.

The judge, however, said the package was “insufficient” in ruling the government had met its burden of proof.

Combs’ attorney pushes back against obstruction claims

On Monday night – following a slew of sexual assault lawsuits and a federal human trafficking probe in the past year – Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and taken into custody by Homeland Security Investigations, a source familiar with negotiations for his surrender told CNN.

The indictment states Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” for more than a decade.

Specifically, the indictment accuses Combs of working with other associates and employees, alleges he hosted drug-fueled “freak offs” — what the indictment describes as “elaborate and produced” sex performances — with victims and sex workers, notes instances of physical and sexual abuse and illuminates what law enforcement found in the March raids of his homes.

In court Tuesday, Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson argued Combs should be detained because he is a “serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” adding pretrial services also recommended detention.

Agnifilo asserted the case is about “one victim” – an argument fiercely opposed by federal prosecutors. In a rebuttal, Johnson emphasized, “There are multiple victims.”

Since last November, Combs has been hit with 10 lawsuits – nine directly accusing him of sexual assault.

“Members and associates of the Combs Enterprise engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other activities, sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice,” the indictment states.

During Combs’ detention hearing, federal prosecutors said at least a dozen witnesses personally observed the music mogul’s violence against women or the injuries they sustained at his hands. Prosecutors also noted Combs had reached out to victims and witnesses, some of whom are scared of him.

The attorney for Dawn Richard, a former member of the musical group Danity Kane, who is accusing Combs of sexual battery in a separate lawsuit, told CNN the federal prosecutor’s revelation about a witness in Richard’s own case receiving 128 phone contacts from Combs within the four days after the complaint being filed was “shocking.”

“That was jarring – 128 phone contacts. Then, after the witness made the statement, not a single phone contact after from Mr. Combs,” attorney Arick Fudali said.

Agnifilo on Tuesday called Combs’ reach-out to the witness the “furthest thing” from obstruction and said the witness had a different experience that would play out at trial.

Erica Wolff, another Combs attorney, denied the allegations in a separate lawsuit in a statement to CNN and accused Richard of having a financial motive.

Agnifilo told CNN on Tuesday night he has “flown around the country,” interviewing a “large number” of men who are alleged witnesses in the case and argued the “freak offs” were consensual acts among adults.

‘I’m not a rag doll. I’m someone’s child’: Prosecutors read texts from women to Combs

Federal prosecutors started their arguments against Combs’ appeal by focusing on his efforts to exert control over his victims.

Combs’ influence “makes it so difficult” to get witnesses to trust the government can protect them, Johnson argued Wednesday. The prosecutor also read aloud in court a text to Combs written by an unidentified woman: “When you get f*cked up the wrong way, you show me your power… I’m not a rag doll. I’m someone’s child.”

Johnson said Combs contacted a witness in June and July shortly after she was served with a subpoena, despite not having spoken with her in several years, adding the risk of obstruction “is heightened because of the defendant’s power.”

Witnesses universally have “extreme fear” of Combs, Johnson said.

Combs’ defense attorney again argued Combs had no plans to flee and had “earned” the court’s trust.

The attorney said he took Combs’ and his family members’ passports and reported all of his domestic travel since he became involved in the investigation as a show to prosecutors they were taking this seriously. In addition, Combs is in treatment and therapy, which Agnifilo argued was a reason for release.

Agnifilo said he knew the music mogul was going to formally face charges on March 25, when the Homeland Security Investigations agency led dramatic searches of his Los Angeles and Miami homes.

By September, Agnifilo said he realized an indictment was “coming down in a matter of weeks, maybe months,” so he urged Combs to fly to New York. Agnifilo said he called federal prosecutors and said his client was willing to surrender – an offer prosecutors said Wednesday they rejected because of the “risk of evidence destruction” and other obstruction.

Combs can be trusted, Agnifilo said, because when he learned of the serious charges by April 1, he handed his passport to his attorney, stopped traveling internationally and made the government aware of his movements.

The judge responded by saying that argument might not help his client if Combs already knew the gravity of the potential obstruction charges against him and subsequently contacted witnesses in June and July this year.

“There is a case now,” Agnifilo said. “He’s going to do everything right from this (point) forward.”

Sex trafficking charge centers on 2016 video

The indictment accuses Combs of years of abuse that “was, at times, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual.” Combs “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” the indictment states.

Johnson told the judge Tuesday that the investigation uncovered evidence of Combs allegedly assaulting victims by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging victims.

The physical abuse in particular was “recurrent and widely known,” the indictment states, and occurred on “numerous” occasions from about 2009 and continued for years.

The sex trafficking charge is based on allegations against a single, unnamed “Victim-I” from about 2009 up to about 2018, the indictment states.

The indictment highlights a March 2016 incident, “which was captured on video and later publicly reported,” showing Combs kicking, dragging and throwing a vase at a woman. When a hotel staffer intervened, Combs attempted to bribe them for their silence, the indictment adds.

The details match up with CNN’s reporting in May of the video that showed Combs beating and kicking his then-girlfriend Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel. She is not named in the indictment.

In November 2023, Ventura sued Combs and accused him of rape and years of abuse. In response, an attorney for Combs said he “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.” They settled the lawsuit a day after it was filed.

The explosive surveillance video contradicted Combs’ earlier comments denying wrongdoing, and days afterward he posted an Instagram video apologizing. That video has since been deleted. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,” he said.

Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who represents Ventura, said in a statement Tuesday: “In response to the numerous inquiries we have received regarding the indictment of Sean Combs, neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”

Prosecutors on Wednesday again pointed to the 2016 video, arguing Combs should be denied bail because he tried to cover-up his conduct.

Johnson also read aloud text messages Combs sent after the 2016 incident that said, “Call me. The cops are here… I got six kids… Ya gonna abandon me.” The prosecutor argued Combs “knew he did something to elicit a law enforcement response, and he had to cover it up.”

Three days after the lawsuit was filed, a woman sent Combs a text, saying: “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma,” Johnson said. Combs responded by trying to convince her she willingly engaged in the sex acts, according to Johnson. The woman replied that she felt “manipulated,” which Johnson said is evidence of Combs trying to tamper with witnesses.

Combs’ attorney hasargued the 2016 video is not evidence of sex trafficking, as prosecutors suggested, but evidence of Combs “having more than one girlfriend and getting caught.”

“This was just a matter of personal embarrassment because he and the person in the video were in the midst of a 10-year relationship that was difficult at times, it was toxic at times, but it was mutually so,” Agnifilo told CNN Tuesday night.

Carter called the video “quite disturbing” and questioned Combs’ defense attorney about Combs kicking Ventura in the video. “What’s love got to do with that?” the judge asked.

“It was jealousy,” Agnifilo responded.

Moments before issuing his ruling, the judge asked why Combs does’t pose a threat to the general public, citing the “physical beating” in the 2016 video.

Agnifilo acknowledged it is an “upsetting” video to watch, and noted Combs went into rehab and is “not the same person he was then.”

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CNN’s Eric Levenson, John Miller, Laura Dolan and Elise Hammond contributed to this report.