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2 weeks ago
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Celebrating his 55th birthday today behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Sean “Diddy” Combs wants a federal judge to give him a present of an ubiquitous gag order in both his sex trafficking criminal case and his ever growing civil cases.
“We write on behalf of our client, Mr. Sean Combs, regarding the deluge of improper pretrial publicity that is undermining Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial and the integrity of the grand jury proceedings,” said the ‘All About the Benjamins’ performer’s main lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos in a letter (read it here) sent to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian on Sunday.
“Given the imminent harm of certain extrajudicial statements relating to the ongoing grand jury proceedings, we request that the court immediately restrain extrajudicial statements by potential witnesses and their counsel during the pendency of the motion,” the defense duo added.
Arrested on September 15 by the feds in the lobby of a NYC hotel, the bail denied Combs is charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces life behind bars if found guilty at a trial set to start on May 5, 2025.
Hoping it never gets to an actual trial, and building on previous attempts by Combs’ team to stop potential witnesses from speaking to the media or others, the proposed order (read it here) that Agnifilo and Geragos submitted on November 3 stated: “For purposes of this Order, ‘potential witnesses’ include any individual who claims or has claimed to be a victim of Mr. Combs in connection with the allegations described in the Indictment, ECF No. 1, or any similar or related conduct.”
It is Courtney Burgess ,the alleged friend of now deceased Comb’s girlfriend Kim Porter, that spurred this latest gag order effort by the defense. Last week Burgess and his lawyer Ariel Mitchell gave a press conference outside the Manhattan courthouse claiming to have testified before the grand jury, as Deadline reported. The music industry vet and his attorney also asserted they had long rumored footage of the much accused Combs raping and sexually assaulting a number of individuals, including some A-listers, in his so-called “freak off” parties. The video is said to feature minors and was found on a flash drive that once belonged to Porter.
With their client facing allegation after allegation, including sexually assaulting 10-year-old boy in 2005, Combs’ criminal case lawyers late yesterday called Burgess’ claims “false and outrageous.” Previous civil suits against Combs accuse him of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 and a 16-year-old boy in 1998 among many other cases
Having had their allegations that government agents were behind the leaking of the 2016 hotel security footage of Combs brutally beating then girlfriend Cassie Ventura rebuffed by the feds, Agnifilo and Geragos are taking a risk on this latest move, and extending it to the dozens of sordid civil cases filed against their client so far – claiming it is all about the money. “By treating these ridiculous claims as anything but a pathetic extortion scheme, the government is fueling the fire of online conspiracy theories and making it impossible for Mr. Combs to have a fair trial,” they wrote.
The office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has argued the civil cases are outside the reach of the criminal case. That may fit within the letter of the law, but it is BS when it comes to the spirit of the law, Combs’ team insists: “It makes little sense that civil litigants seeking to capitalize on the criminal allegations against Mr. Combs can nonetheless claim that they are not involved in the criminal proceedings.”
Judge Subramanian hasn’t issued a ruling on that matter or inked the proposed order, yet.
