Sean 'Diddy' Combs pushes for release again, offers 'far more robust' bail package
Sean "Diddy" Combs sought again on Friday to be released from pretrial detention by offering a "far more robust" bail package and by asserting the government's criminal case against him "is thin," according to a new court filing.
Combs is now suggesting home detention with round-the-clock security monitoring and "near-total restrictions on Mr. Combs' ability to contact individuals other than counsel."
The producer and rapper was already denied bail in September, with the judge saying the government had provided sufficient evidence Combs was a danger to the community and a danger to obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses. He also said the defense's proposed bail package was "insufficient."
His attorneys said the new proposed measures should assure the court he would not tamper with witnesses or endanger others.
The attorneys also argued the federal lockup in Brooklyn, where Combs has been since his arrest, lacks the resources to help Combs view the voluminous video and photographic evidence in the case in order to build his defense.
"Despite the MDC's best efforts to facilitate the defense team's needs, the current arrangement makes trial preparation impossible -- as evidenced by the recent multiagency sweep of the facility and resulting lockdown," the filing said, referring to a multiagency sweep of the facility in late October that recovered "a number of electronic devices, drugs and associated paraphernalia, and homemade weapons," according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Though Combs is being held at MDC-Brooklyn, the raid wasn't tied to the media mogul, and the prison has a long history of problems.
Federal prosecutors have begun turning over evidence, which the defense said "undermines" the government's case.
"The government clearly misled the court and concealed the true facts during the initial bail hearing," the defense filing said. "In other words, the government's allegations are incredibly weak and contradicted by the testimony of its own witnesses and the discovery received to date."
Combs was charged with racketeering, sex trafficking by force and transportation to engage in prostitution in a sweeping indictment unsealed in September.
The indictment accuses Combs of being the ringleader of a criminal "enterprise" that allowed him to sexually, physically, emotionally and verbally abuse his victims for years.
Combs "abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct," the indictment states. He also stands accused of narcotics offenses, arson, bribery, kidnapping, forced labor and other offenses.
He has pleaded not guilty and strongly denied the allegations.
