Sean “Diddy” Combs files new bail request in sex trafficking, conspiracy case

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER and ANDREW DALTON

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await trial on sex trafficking charges at his luxurious home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than in a grim federal prison in Brooklyn.

Combs’ lawyers have offered $50 million bail — using his mansion as collateral — in exchange for his release to home detention with GPS monitoring. A hearing on the request was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, a U.S. magistrate judge in Manhattan ordered Combs held without bail.

The hip-hop mogul, whose career exploded in the 1990s, was arrested Monday on charges contained in an indictment that accuses Combs of using his “power and prestige” for “sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”

The indictment describes provocations of female victims and sex workers into elaborate, drugged sexual performances, dubbed “freak offs,” that Combs organized, directed, masturbated during and often recorded. The events sometimes lasted for days and required IVs for recovery, the indictment says.

He is accused of coercing and abusing women for years using blackmail, including through videos he shot, and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims under control, coordinated and facilitated from the top down by a network of associates and employees.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, submitted a letter to Judge Andrew L. Carter on Wednesday requesting the release of Combs, 54, under certain conditions, including home confinement with GPS monitoring and a restriction on all visitors to his residences except family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators.

Combs’s home sits on Star Island, a man-made sliver of land in Biscayne Bay accessible only by causeway or boat. It’s one of the most expensive places in the United States to live. Combs’s request echoes a long line of wealthy defendants who have offered to post multimillion-dollar bail in exchange for house arrest in luxurious surroundings.

“Sean Combs has never avoided, evaded, evaded or run away from a challenge in his life,” the defense said in a court filing. “He won’t start now.”

Combs was expected to reiterate his not guilty plea at his first appearance before Carter.

So far, prosecutors have successfully argued that he poses a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain incarcerated until trial.

For all the revelations that accompanied the indictment’s unveiling Tuesday, most of the elements it contains were outlined in a complaint filed in November by his former girlfriend and longtime protégé, R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. The lawsuit was settled the next day, but her allegations have followed Combs ever since.

His descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults, silence tactics and “freak offs” were repeated throughout the indictment, although he did not name her or any other woman.

Agnifilo, also without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, argued at Tuesday’s arraignment that the entire criminal case is the result of a long-term, troubled but consensual relationship that broke down because of infidelity.

According to Agnifilo, the “Freak Offs” were an extension of that relationship, not a form of coercion.

“Is this sex trafficking?” Agnifilo asked. “Not if everyone wants to go.”

Prosecutors, however, have estimated the scope of the case to be much larger. They said in court documents that they have interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect that number to grow.

Like many of hip-hop’s aging figures—including many with whom he feuded during the bicoastal rap feuds of the 1990s alongside the Notorious B.I.G.—Bad Boy Records founder Combs had cultivated a softer, more outward-looking public image. A loving father of seven, he was a respected international businessman whose annual “White Party” in the Hamptons was once a must-attend event for the jet-setting elite.

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

The AP generally does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they do so publicly, as Ventura has done.

Combs was arrested Monday night at a Manhattan hotel, about six months after federal authorities raided his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami and revealed they were investigating sex trafficking.

Prosecutors said law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant. They also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with falsified serial numbers.

The indictment describes Combs as a man so violent that he caused injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and prevented victims from leaving or stalked those who tried, the indictment said.

A conviction on each count would carry a mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison, with the possibility of life in prison.

Combs and his lawyers have denied similar allegations made by others in a series of lawsuits filed after Ventura’s.

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This story has been edited to correct the spelling of Cassie’s legal first name: Casandra, not Cassandra.

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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

Originally published: September 18, 2024 at 12:04 a.m.