A May 5 trial date was set Thursday for hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs to face sex trafficking charges.
Combs appeared before Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan federal court. After entering the courtroom, he gave a hearty hug to each of his lawyers and smiled as he spoke with them.
The judge also set deadlines for lawyers on each side to submit arguments that will establish the boundaries for a trial that Combs’ lawyers want to start in April or May. He set another date for Combs to appear in court in December, though he said lawyers may decide it is not necessary.
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to charges lodged against him last month, including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking based on allegations that date back to 2008.
At Thursday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said 96 electronic devices were seized in raids in March on Combs’ residences in Miami and Los Angeles and at an unspecified private airport in Florida. She said another four devices were seized when Combs was arrested last month.
She said eight devices seized in Miami contained over 90 terabytes of information, which she labeled as “extraordinary” as she explained delays in extracting some information for technological reasons.
An indictment alleges Combs coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violent acts, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Johnson repeated an assertion made at an earlier hearing that the indictment may be updated to add charges or defendants.
Late Wednesday, lawyers for Combs submitted court papers blaming the government’s Department of Homeland Security for a leak to the media of a video of Combs punching and kicking his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway in 2016.
The lawyers claimed that the video aired by CNN in May along with other alleged government leaks “have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pretrial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”
After the video was broadcast, Combs posted a social media video apologizing, saying: “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.”
Federal prosecutors responded to the defense lawyers’ claims by telling the judge in a letter that the government was not in possession of the video before it was aired on CNN.
During Thursday’s hearing, the judge said he will issue an order restricting what both sides can say publicly about the charges or the investigation.
Combs’ lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully to get the founder of Bad Boy Records freed on bail since his Sept. 16 arrest.
Two judges have concluded that Combs would be a danger to the community if he is freed. At a bail hearing three weeks ago, a judge rejected a $50 million bail package, including home detention and electronic monitoring, after concluding that Combs was a threat to tamper with witnesses and obstruct a continuing investigation.
In an appeal of the bail rulings to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Combs on Tuesday asked a panel of judges to reverse the bail findings, saying the proposed bail package “would plainly stop him from posing a danger to anyone or contacting any witnesses.”
They urged the appeals court to reject the findings of a lower-court judge who they said had “endorsed the government’s exaggerated rhetoric and ordered Mr. Combs detained.”
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Source: Los Angeles Times (edited)
