Sean “Diddy” Combs will continue to be held without bail, a judge ruled Wednesday evening, on charges including sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
Judge Andrew Carter denied bail and ordered Combs remanded into custody, where his attorney said he would be held in the special housing unit of Metropolitan Detention Center-Brooklyn.
Carter said the government had provided sufficient evidence Combs was a danger to the community and a danger to obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses. Carter said the defense’s proposed bail package was “insufficient.”
Combs did not appear to react but had his eyes cast downward while seated at the defense table.
Departing court Wednesday evening, the music mogul’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said he planned to again appeal the judge’s ruling.
“The fight continues, we’re not giving up by a long shot,” Agnifilo told reporters outside the courthouse, adding, that while it’s still up in the air whether Combs would waive his right to a speedy trial, as his lawyer he would “do everything I can to move this trial as fast as possible,” though he’d “much prefer to do that with him out of jail.”
“Mr. Combs has maintained he’s innocent,” Agnifilo said. “He’s a smart guy, he knows what he did and what he didn’t do, he knows what he intended and didn’t intend and I believe him… he’s a man who knows what it’s like to have a jury of 12 New Yorkers look at you and say ‘not guilty’ and he’s looking forward to that happening again.”
Before making his ruling, Carter had appeared skeptical of the defense’s claim that a 2016 video, in which Combs was seen kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura, was the product of a ten-year loving relationship dissolving because of her jealousy over his infidelity.
“What’s love got to do with that?” Carter asked.
Agnifilo conceded that it was “a hard video to watch,” but maintained that it “doesn’t mean he should be incarcerated.”
Prosecutor Emily Johnson, in pushing for Combs to remain in custody, accused him of a “longstanding pattern of abuse,” and said his victims have an “extreme fear” of Combs because of his influence in the entertainment industry.
Johnson said Combs called a victim in November 2023 — after Ventura’s civil lawsuit was filed — seeking to maintain this victim’s public support.
According to prosecutors, the victim told Combs that when she read Ventura’s lawsuit, “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma.” Combs allegedly tried to convince her she willingly participated in the acts, but the woman pushed back, saying that was “not how she saw things,” Johnson said.
Diddy told the woman, whom prosecutors said he supports financially, that “she ain’t got nothing to worry about” if she kept up her support of him. Prosecutors said it made clear Combs would use financial coercion to keep victims close.
Mindful of the judge’s stated concern about potential witness tampering, Agnifilo offered to place one or two retired police officers at Combs’ house at all times to control who enters and keep a visitor’s log.
“What I am trying to fashion is a situation where any witness intimidation … would be virtually impossible,” Agnifilo said.
Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, Agnifilo appealed Judge Robyn Tarnofsky’s Tuesday decision to detain the 54-year-old pending trial.
In a letter to the court ahead of the Wednesday hearing, Agnifilo wrote that Combs is “eminently trustworthy” and should be released on a $50 million bond.
The bond — which would have been secured by his Miami home worth $48 million — would’ve been co-signed by Combs, his mother, his sister, his three adult sons and the mothers of two of his daughters. The defense also proposed restricted travel, restrictions on female visitors and home detention among other conditions of release.
Agnifilo took issue with prosecution comparisons of Combs to sex offenders like R. Kelly, Keith Raniere and Ghislaine Maxwell, all of whom were jailed for a time at the same place — MDC-Brooklyn — where Diddy is currently being held. He said the charges, while serious, are “eminently defensible” and pledged Combs would show up to court to defend himself.
“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded or run from a challenge in his life. He will not start now,” Agnifilo’s letter said.
The attorney previously said Combs is trying to sell his private plane. Agnifilo said he took possession of his client’s passport and those of five of his relatives.
In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, seated right, looks at his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, left, as he delivers his bail argument as Combs’ family in the gallery, background, raise their hands indicating to Judge Tarnofsky that they are in attendance, to bolster the defense attorney’s bail argument, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Manhattan Federal Court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Elizabeth Williams/AP
Combs is alleged to have run an “enterprise that he engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and other crimes,” according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” from 2008 to the present. The allegations mirror 11 civil complaints filed against him since 2023.
Explaining the decision to deny Combs bail on Tuesday, Tarnofsky said, “My concern is that this is a crime that happens behind closed doors.”
Federal prosecutors argued Combs poses an ongoing threat to the community.
“The defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” prosecutors said. “During the course of the charged conduct, the defendant has attempted to bribe security staff and threatened and interfered with witnesses to his criminal conduct.”
“He has already tried to obstruct the Government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of events.”
“There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop,” prosecutors said.
Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between, in New York City, U.S. on Jan. 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
He also argued that when Combs took two trips — to a graduation party for one of his children and a whitewater rafting trip — “we told the government where he was going.”
“Trust has to be earned and we have earned it,” he told the judge.
Upon his arrival to jail on Tuesday, Combs had a psychiatric evaluation administered by Bureau of Prisons physiologists, according to sources familiar with his incarceration. The evaluation is meant to determine whether he needed to be placed in the Special Housing Unit or on suicide watch.
Suicide watch requires around-the-clock care and hourly checks from corrections officers. Special Housing is an isolated part of the jail where other high-profile MDC inmates, like El Chapo, were kept.
It’s unclear whether Diddy, who has a history of abusing opioids, sources have said, is on suicide watch or in special housing, but he is not in with the general population at MDC, the sources told ABC News.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Josh Margolin and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
