Left: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ house in Los Angeles (KTVU/YouTube). Right: Combs’ house in Miami Beach (Law&Crime). Inset: Sean P. Diddy Combs at the amfAR Gala Dinner and Auction held on May 22, 2008 during the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France (File Photo by: zz/DP/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx 2008 5/22/08).
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been ordered to be kept behind bars following his arrest for allegedly running a decades-long sex trafficking scheme in which women were sexually abused, tormented, threatened, and forced to participate in sex parties that often involved coerced drug use and being filmed without permission.
Combs appeared in federal court in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. An indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses the music mogul of a pattern of transporting sex workers across state lines and working with a network of people to set up, carry out, and then hide extensive sexual abuse toward women he lured into his circle of influence.
“This was the first step,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo told reporters following the arraignment and detention hearing. “We have a bail appeal scheduled for tomorrow.”
“We made the points that we’ve been wanting to make,” Agnifilo also said. “Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight to the end. He’s innocent.”
Agnifilo did not disclose where Combs is being detained. The bail appeal hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Judge Tarnofsky: In this case I find the presumption has not been rebutted
[So, Sean Combs will be detained]— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) September 17, 2024
Combs, the indictment says, “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”
“This abuse was, at times, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual,” the filing continues. “As part of his pattern of abuse, Combs manipulated women to participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers … [ensuring] participation from the women by, among other things, obtaining and distributing narcotics to them, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and threatening to cut off the same, and using intimidation and violence.”
Examples of alleged assault include hitting women, dragging them, and throwing objects at them, the indictment says. It also makes an apparent reference to the troubling security footage that surfaced earlier this year appearing to show Combs viciously beating R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura in 2016.
“When a member of the hotel security staff intervened, Combs attempted to bribe the staff member to ensure silence,” the indictment alleges.
According to prosecutors, Combs deployed the power of his business to “carry out, facilitate, and cover up his abuse and commercial sex” and allegedly rewarded employees and associates “who demonstrated loyalty to Combs and willingness to conceal his crimes.”
Combs and his loyalists would “intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Combs’ orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says. Those actions would then escalate to “force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers.”
According to prosecutors, Combs’ referred to these encounters as “Freak Offs.”
“Freak Offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded,” the indictment says. Combs would allegedly cause sex workers to be transported across state lines and internationally to participate in “Freak Offs,” which “occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers.”
As the “Freak Offs” were happening, Combs would distribute “a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant,” prosecutors allege, noting that victims would “typically” receive IV fluids “to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.”
Combs also allegedly recorded victims engaging in sex acts and kept those videos. He also allegedly used “physical, emotional, and verbal abuse” as well as “promises of career opportunities” and threats to withhold financial support to get people to participate.
Combs and his associates were also allegedly known to carry firearms and use them to threaten others, the indictment says. The March raids of his homes resulted in seizures of “firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, as well as a drum magazine.”
Images of firearms and ammunition allegedly seized during raids on the Miami and Los Angeles homes of Sean “Diddy” Combs (DOJ).
Those in a position to help the alleged victims of abuse encouraged and enabled it instead, prosecutors say.
“Members and associates of the Combs Enterprise helped conceal the violence and abuse by, among other things, assisting Combs in monitoring and preventing victims from leaving locations, such as hotels or Combs’ residences,” the indictment says. “These occasions included instances in which a victim was required to remain in hiding — sometimes for several days at a time — to recover from injuries Combs inflicted, without being publicly observed. Members and associates of the Combs Enterprise also assisted Combs in locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee his abuse.”
Some of these tactics included kidnapping and arson, prosecutors say.
The charges collectively come with a potential sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
In dueling filings ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers for both the federal government and Combs painted opposing pictures of the defendant. Prosecutors had argued that Combs was not only a flight risk, but — given the nature of the charges against him — was a danger to the community.
He also poses a threat to the integrity of the prosecution itself, lawyers said.
“Most glaringly, the defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” wrote prosecutors, adding that Combs has “attempted to bribe security staff and threatened and interfered with witnesses to his criminal conduct.”
“He has already tried to obstruct the Government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of events,” the letter continued. “There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop.”
However, as attorney Bradford Cohen noted to Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber, the allegations of pressuring potential witnesses could potentially backfire on the prosecutors.
“The judge can say, ‘Hey, if he was obstructing, why didn’t you charge him with all these obstructing charges if you thought he was obstructing these witnesses?’” Cohen said, noting that the presumption to show a defendant isn’t a danger falls to the defendant.
Cohen anticipated that prosecutors would be ready to back up those allegations in court.
“I think they’re going to show exactly the individuals that they have that will testify that he attempted to give them money, or attempted to tell them they were part of this ongoing criminal enterprise,” Cohen said.
Attorneys for Combs argued that their client had taken several steps to show that he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. In a letter filed Tuesday opposing the government’s request, attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos described Combs as “eminently trustworthy” and “demonstrably committed to showing his innocence in Court in the context of this case.”
Combs’ lawyers say their client’s cooperation has been “extraordinary” from the start.
“The first thing the Court should know is that when it became apparent to his counsel that Mr. Combs would at some point soon be formally charged, he did something extraordinary: He left his home in Miami and travelled to New York, the very location of the prosecutors and agents investigating him,” the letter said.
Combs has shown a “pattern” of trustworthiness since the March 25 raids on his homes in Los Angeles and Miami, and lawyers described his “great degree of collaboration” with the government as “unusual, if not unprecedented.”
“Mr. Combs’ history and characteristics are best demonstrated by the way he has responded to this investigation from the very inception to his most recent decision to travel to New York when his lawyers told him that the case could soon be starting,” the letter said. “He has never run from a challenge, and he will not run from this one. Instead, he takes these challenges head on, he moves toward them confidently and with the assurance that right is on his side.”
The lawyers noted that even though he knew for months that he could be facing potentially serious criminal charges, “Mr. Combs has not, in fact, left the country — despite knowing the investigation was ongoing, despite having a plane at his disposal, despite not being charged with any crime.”
In the letter, Combs’ lawyers suggested conditions of release that offer a glimpse of Combs’ vast wealth. In addition to a $50 million bond, Combs is offering his $48 million Miami home, as well as his mother’s Miami home, as collateral; his passports as well as those of multiple family members; an apparent commitment to sell his airplane; and home detention with GPS monitoring.
Attorneys also cited Combs’ “contributions to society in several important areas,” including his support of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the creation of charter schools in Harlem and the Bronx.
“Through his multifaceted career, Mr. Combs has not only created thousands of jobs, including valuable internships for young professionals, but has also supported minority and women-owned businesses, leveraging them as key suppliers and vendors for his enterprises,” the letter added.
Combs’ lawyers also discussed the “horrific conditions” of the place their client would likely be held — the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the very detention center where accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in 2019. Although the letter does not mention Epstein, it does emphasize other recent deaths there, including a murder over the summer and four suicides in three years.
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