Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail for the third time by a judge in New York City who described him as a “serious risk” for witness tampering.
Prosecutors had previously accused Combs of trying to contact prospective witnesses from jail in an attempt to create “narratives” to influence public opinion as well as potential jurors for his impending sex trafficking trial.
Combs is at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution and has been accused of violating prison regulations.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied multiple sexual assault accusations from more than two dozen civil lawsuits that accuse him of abusing men and women – some underage at the time of the alleged assaults – blackmailing them with footage of the incidents, as well as threatening and beating witnesses and committing kidnap and arson.
In a bail hearing on Wednesday, US district judge Arun Subramanian ruled: “The court finds that the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Combs’ lawyers had proposed a $50m bail package that they said would ensure the rapper did not flee or try to intimidate other potential trial witnesses.
But, wrote Subramanian, “there is compelling evidence of Combs’s propensity for violence”.
“Given the nature of the allegations in this case and the information provided by the government, the court doubts the sufficiency of any conditions that place trust in Combs and individuals in his employ – like a private security detail – to follow those conditions.”
Combs is also accused of misusing jail communications to influence witnesses and coercing peers to post online in his defence.
Prosecutors said that Combs enlisted family members to carry out a social media campaign around his 4 November birthday – encouraging his children to post videos of them gathered to celebrate him to their social media accounts – after which he monitored analytics and “explicitly discussed with his family how to ensure that the video had his desired effect on potential jury members in this case”.
Combs’ lawyers say he should be released to give him time to prepare for his trial in 2025, and that the seizure from his cell earlier this month of 20 pages was unlawful and that the documents were subject to attorney-client privilege.
Prosecutors disagreed, and said that Combs’ alleged tampering could be considered an obstruction of justice. They said Combs used the app ContactMeAsap, for inmates to communicate with sanctioned contacts, to talk to dozens of people, including those not on his approved contact list, as well as paying other inmates to use their phone privileges to reach people outside his approved contacts.
Lisa Bloom, a lawyer for musician Dawn Richard, who filed a civil suit against Combs, similarly alleges that he was contacting witnesses from prison, and told BBC TV’s Newsnight that Combs was part of a complex, multi-person arrangement. “We think it’s very important that not only do predators get brought to justice, but those who conspire with them, who help them, who are complicit”.
