Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Prosecutors compared Sean "Diddy" Combs to sex-trafficking convict R. Kelly during two hours of bail arguments in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.
The bail hearing, attended by Combs' children and his mother, ended with the judge promising a decision sometime next week on whether the rap entrepreneur can remain free on bail pending a trial scheduled for May 5. Combs has been jailed since his September 16 arrest.
AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
Combs is asking to post a $50 million bond and to remain on home confinement in a three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Prosecutors counter that Combs is continuing to obstruct justice by contacting witnesses and victims from jail, and can't be trusted to stop doing so if freed.
Over the past two weeks, Combs' lawyers have pointed to ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries — who was quickly freed on $10 million bail when arrested last month on federal sex-trafficking charges — in arguing that Combs, too, deserves bail.
Both Combs and Jeffries used the power of their brands and their wealth to force victims to participate in drug-fueled sex parties, federal prosecutors have alleged. Both men have pleaded not guilty and deny the allegations.
When defense lawyers raised the Jeffries case again on Friday, prosecutors said that the charges against Combs are more like the sex-trafficking charges faced by disgraced R&B singer Kelly and sex-cult leader Keith Raniere, neither of whom were granted bail pre-trial.
The "I Believe I Can Fly" singer is serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges in Brooklyn in 2021 and in Chicago last September.
Raniere, the former leader of the self-help organization-turned-sex-cult NXIVM, is serving a 120-year sentence after a federal jury in Brooklyn found him guilty of sex trafficking in 2019.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
The former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO is 80 years old, halted his criminal behavior ten years ago, and suffered "certain other non-public health issues" that contributed to his getting bail, in contrast to the 55-year-old Combs, an assistant US attorney, Christy Slavik, told Combs' judge on Friday.
And like Combs, Kelly and Raniere continued a pattern of violence and intimidation until their arrest, Slavik alleged.
"These cases are much more comparable, your honor," she told US District Court Judge Arun Subramanian.
AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
The judge asked both sides to submit one more set of written bail arguments on Friday, and said he'd issue a decision before week's end.
Also Friday, the judge asked defense attorney Marc Agnifilo why he said in court on Tuesday that prosecutors improperly possessed copies of Combs' handwritten notes that had been clearly labeled "Legal."
The word "Legal" had only been written on the notes after prosecutors received copies, the judge had pointed out. "As I sit here today, I'm not sure when 'Legal' was written on all of them," Agnifilo told the judge Friday, promising to look into the matter further.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney's Office and an attorney for Jeffries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Combs, once one of hip-hop's most successful entrepreneurs, is accused of engaging since 2009 in a pattern of physical and sexual violence against multiple victims, including during elaborate, days-long sex parties called "freak offs."
He has contended that the sexual behavior was consensual and that his accusers have a financial motive to implicate him.
