Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs makes fresh bid for bail in sex trafficking and conspiracy case

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER and ANDREW DALTON

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn. Prosecutors argued against the arrangement, saying there was too great a risk that the hip-hop mogul could threaten or harm witnesses.

Combs’ lawyers offered a $50 million bail package — using his mansion as collateral — in exchange for releasing him to home detention with GPS monitoring and strict limitations on who could visit him. The defense and prosecution were wrangling over the request at a hearing Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, a U.S. magistrate judge in Manhattan ordered Combs held without bail.

Combs, 54, pleaded not guilty Tuesday after an indictment accused him of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, participated in and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days, the indictment said.

The indictment alleges he coerced and abused women for years, with the help of a network of associates and employees, while using blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings to keep victims from speaking out.

Combs has been in federal custody since his arrest Monday night at a Manhattan hotel.

Arguing to keep him locked up, prosecutor Emily Johnson told U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter that the once-celebrated rapper has a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse. She cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak videos of them engaging in sex acts.

Johnson said Combs’ defense team was “minimizing and horrifically understating” Combs’ propensity for violence, taking issue with his lawyer’s portrayal of a 2016 assault at a Los Angeles hotel as a lovers’ quarrel. Security video of the event showed Combs hitting his then-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway.

Johnson seized on a text message from a woman who said Combs dragged her down a hallway by her hair. According to Johnson, the woman told the rapper: “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”

Combs is a “danger to the community and poses a serious risk to the integrity” of his case, Johnson argued.

Federal Magistrate Robyn F. Tarnofsky initially ruled that Combs was too dangerous to be freed. But Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, submitted a letter to Carter on Wednesday asking again for bail under conditions that would allow him to leave the Metropolitan Detention Center, the lockup on the Brooklyn waterfront where he was taken after his arraignment.

The jail, which has around 1,200 inmates, is the subject of frequent complaints from lawyers and some judges that it is overcrowded, violent and neglected.

Combs’ Florida house is on Star Island, a man-made dollop of land in Biscayne Bay, reachable only by a causeway or boat. It is among the most expensive places to live in the United States. Combs’ request echoes that of a long line of wealthy defendants who have offered to pay multimillion-dollar bails in exchange for home detention in luxurious surroundings.

If he were to be granted bail, Combs would have to stay in that house while awaiting trial, his lawyers offered. Visits would be restricted to family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators.

“I am feeling confident. We’re going to go get Mr. Combs out of jail,” Agnifilo said on his way into court Wednesday. He said Combs is “doing great, he’s focused and he’s ready for his hearing.”

Many of the accusations in the indictment parallel allegations contained in a November lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. The suit was settled the following day, but its allegations have followed Combs since.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

Without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, Agnifilo argued at Tuesday’s arraignment that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. The “Freak Offs,” he contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

Prosecutors portrayed the scope as larger. They said they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses.

Like many aging hip-hop figures, Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler public image. The father of seven children was a respected international businessman, whose annual “White Party” in the Hamptons was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.

But prosecutors said he used the same companies, people and methods he used to build his business and cultural power to facilitate his crimes. They said they would prove it with financial and travel records, electronic communications and videos of the “Freak Offs.”

In March, authorities raided Combs’ luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami, seizing narcotics, videos and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles.