AP NEWS
A May 5 trial date was set Thursday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’sex trafficking case, and a prosecutor argued that the jailed hip-hop mogul’s lawyers were trying to exclude a “damning piece of evidence” by claiming it was leaked by the government.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson struck back against the defense’s claims during Combs’ first appearance before Manhattan federal court Judge Arun Subramanian, who will preside over his trial. Combs’ mother flew in from Florida for the proceeding, sitting behind him with his children and other family members in the courtroom gallery.
Johnson took issue with the defense lawyers’ argument in a submission late Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security leaked a video to the media of Combs punching and kicking his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Combs’ lawyers said the video, aired by CNN in May, and 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.”
But Johnson urged the judge to see through the defense claims, calling them “baseless and simply a means to try to exclude a damning piece of evidence” from the trial.
“Not a single one of those alleged leaks are from members of the prosecution team,” Johnson said.
Still, Subramanian told defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo to write a proposed order that he would sign instructing lawyers on both sides to comply with rules prohibiting them from publicly disclosing information that could taint a jury.
The prospective order would also restrict what both sides can publicly say about the case — something Johnson said was necessary after Agnifilo characterized Combs’ indictment in a TMZ interview last month as a “takedown of a successful Black man.”
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges alleging he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Johnson reasserted that the indictment could be updated to add charges or defendants.
Combs, wearing a beige jail jumpsuit, was more engaged and animated during Thursday’s hearing than he had been at two earlier court appearances. When he entered the courtroom, he gave a hearty hug to each of his lawyers and smiled as he spoke with them.
During the proceeding, he turned to attorney Anthony Ricco and whispered in his ear, as Johnson spoke about electronic materials seized from his residences and from him during his arrest.
Ricco said outside the courthouse afterward that Combs is making the best of a difficult situation.
“Dr. King called it the law of unintended consequences,” he said, referring to civil rights leader Martin Luther King. “Sometimes the more you push a person down, the stronger they get.”
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.