Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs demands bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence

NEW YORK – Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a new bail request Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed out of jail to prepare for a May trial.

Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous bail requests have been rejected by two judges since his arrest in September on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

He has denied guilty pleas that he coerced and abused women for years with the help of a network of associates and associates, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical abuse.

He is awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention center in Brooklyn.

In their new lawsuit, Combs’ attorneys say they are proposing a “much more robust” bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict 24-hour security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone other than his attorneys. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they previously proposed.

They also cite new evidence that they say “makes clear that the government’s case is thin.” That evidence, the attorneys said, refutes the government’s claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a forced “panic,” a sexually explicit event described as described in the indictment against Combs.

They wrote that the encounter was instead “a minute-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship” between Combs and his then-girlfriend.

The attorneys argued that the prison conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional rights to participate in his defense.