Fighting to stay out of prison for the rest of his life on sex trafficking charges and more, Sean “Diddy” Combs now wants more screen time.
Facing one of the prosecutors who helped put Jeffrey Epstein's right-hand man, Ghislaine Maxwell, behind bars and recently rejected his $50 million bail request for a third time, the “Nobody Can't Get Me Down” artist today complained to a federal judge that Uncle Sam isn't letting him… By accessing a laptop in his cell.
“We write on behalf of Mr. Combs to ask the court to direct the MDC to provide Mr. Combs with the laptop computer prepared for him by the government, and to allow him to use that laptop in his unit, consistent with the manner other inmates do in the prison.” His unit is allowed to use laptops Their own,” declares a letter ( read it here ) Wednesday from defense attorney Mark Agnifilo to Judge Arun Subramanian about his client’s apparent ability to look at documents digitally at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. center.
“Two months after he was charged and detained, on November 25, 2024, the government provided the MDC with a laptop that Mr. Combs could use to review discovery, take notes related to his case, and assist in his defense,” he added. Agnifilo, who has successfully represented high-profile figures such as former International Monetary Fund chief and former French presidential contender Dominique Strauss-Kahn in his rape trial. “In the nine days since, Mr. Combs has still not been provided with the laptop despite numerous inquiries by defense counsel.”
Given how much life Combs will have to live in prison if he is found guilty in the criminal case in a trial scheduled to begin May 5, Combs is charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution. The former business mogul, who pleaded not guilty after being arrested on September 16 and detained in the MDC party for nearly three months, also faces dozens of civil lawsuits centering on a celebrity-attended, drug-fuelled eccentricity that was captured on video. . outside. “
Raising the stakes or threat level depending on your point of view, Kash Patel, Donald Trump's controversial nominee for FBI director, said that if confirmed to the top cop job, he would likely release the names of celebrities and notorious people who have attended slut-coms throughout the year . Contracts. Of particular note is the fact that Trump and Combs have socialized frequently over the years, as did the former and future US president with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died under mysterious circumstances in the MDC in 2019 of an apparent suicide.
With incumbent Damian Williams set to replace former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District had no comment tonight on the latest letter from Combs' defense to Judge Subramanian when contacted by Deadline. However, Agnifilo's three-page correspondence states that “the government has indicated that it intends to make a response.”
Part of that upcoming response should be to offer the feds and the Bureau of Prisons that Combs can use the laptop either in the unit's “videoconferencing room during specified times when legal staff is available and when that room is not otherwise being used during legal calls to other inmates; or.” …will be provided with the laptop only in the legal visiting room between 8-3:30 p.m.
“These restrictions are indefensible and, from what we understand, are not required of any other inmate in Mr. Combs’ unit,” lawyers for the Bad Boy Records founders say in a letter today. “It significantly limits the time available to Mr. Combs to use the laptop and forces Mr. Combs to choose between using the laptop and meeting with his attorneys (who often meet with Mr. Combs via video conference).” There is no justification for these restrictions.”
Among all this, what the defense wants is for the court to order movement officials to allow Combs to use the laptop wherever and whenever he wants. Additionally, in the latest move by the defense team in a heavy case, the team of Coombs Agnifilo and Tiny Geragos wants the same officials to stop providing prosecutors with “visitation forms” for attorneys’ meetings with their clients at the facility because they could be “privileged.”
Wednesday also saw prosecutors send their own letter to Judge Subramanian to fulfill his order on record that they had nothing to do with the leaking of 2016 footage depicting Combs hitting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel or any other material to the court. Media. “Each confirmed that they did not disclose information they learned during the investigation to any member of the press,” says an announcement from Jane Kim, deputy chief of the SDNY Criminal Division, of various assistant U.S. attorneys, who also spoke with Homeland Security Investigations officials and others. Law enforcement team members.
In the ad, as if to confirm that she is not in the game, Kim bluntly states that she is “not a member of the prosecution team responsible for the investigation.”
This new crisis comes just hours before the defense makes its latest attempt to “get the indictment dismissed” or at least hold a new hearing on complaints about the treatment Combs received.
“The government took advantage of Mr. Combs' detention by engaging in unfair and unconstitutional tactics that interfered with his ability to work with his counsel and made it impossible for his counsel to provide effective assistance of counsel,” Alexandra Shapiro says of U.S. Attorney Williams and his staff cooperating with BOP officials. “The evidence shows that the government is using Mr. Combs’ detention to spy on him and intrude on his confidential communications with his attorneys.”
A hearing has not been agreed upon yet, and no date has been set.
BTW: That new AUSA who was part of the team that put Ghislaine Maxwell on the hook and joined Combs' case on Monday? This is Maureen Ryan Comey. Besides Maxwell's case, one of her other claims to fame is that she is the daughter of James Comey, the FBI director who was fired by Trump early in his first term. Let's see if new US Attorney Clayton keeps her on the case after January 20th.
