Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs To Learn Fate About Remaining Behind Bars

Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in a rough New York jail awaiting trial in his sex trafficking case after a second failed attempt to be released on bail.

Appearing in front of District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. on Wednesday, Combs’ $50 million bond package was denied as the judge agreed with prosecutors that the media mogul is a dangerous flight risk.

A status hearing is set for October 9. The defense would not agree to try the case in October.

Combs, 54, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges following his arrest at the Park Hyatt New York hotel on Monday.

On Wednesday, he sat in the courtroom wearing a black shirt, not an inmate uniform, with two U.S. Marshals sitting behind him. His’ sons Justin Combs, Quincy Brown, and King Combs are all present in court for the second consecutive day.

Carter is a different judge than the one who denied Combs’ first request for bail. Carter will likely oversee the rest of this case.

Prosecutors revealed Wednesday that law enforcement found six guns in his homes during the raids earlier this year. Combs’ head of security has also been served with a subpoena.

They also alleged that Combs has contacted victims and witnesses and “gaslit” them into believing that their participation in his orchestrated sex acts was consensual.

The state also claimed his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura was trying to flee from Combs and a commercial sex worker after a “Freak Off” in the viral 2016 hotel security cam footage released earlier this year by CNN.

Combs has a towel wrapped around his waist in the shocking video. In court on Tuesday, his legal team claimed that was because Cassie took his clothes and ran out of the room. Prosecutors say this lie is an example that Combs can’t be taken at his word – and should stay in jail awaiting trial.

‘What’s Love Got To Do With That?’

Wednesday’s hearing is got heated between the judge and Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo.

The judge called the 2016 video with Cassie “troubling” as Agnifilo repeated that his client knows he has issues with drug addiction and anger and went into a rehab program after the incident.

“They loved each other. The written messages are heartbreaking,” Agnifilo said about texts between Combs and Cassie. “The sex and the violence were totally separate, motivated by separate things. They way they chose to be intimate, they would bring a third person on. They chose that.”

The judge fired back, “What does that have to do with him punching her? Throwing a vase at her? What’s love got to do with that?”

Agnifilo responded, “That was jealousy from infidelity in both directions, Mr. Combs and this other person. The violence is from that.”

“What is your point?” the judge asked.

Second Bid For Bail

Combs’ lawyers asked the judge Wednesday to allow him to await trial in his Miami mansion instead of jail.

The proposed $50 million bail, signed by Combs, his mother, and several family members, included conditions that he be released to home detention with GPS monitoring to ensure he’s not a flight risk.

He would have agreed to weekly drug testing and the keeping of a visit log to be submitted nightly to pretrial services. The defense also said Combs would not have access to a cell phone or internet.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs In ‘Hell On Earth’

Combs is being held at the less-than-lavish Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which has previously been a temporary home for other celeb criminals, including R. Kelly, Michael Cohen, Allison Mack, and Ghislaine Maxwell.

In the past three years, four inmates have died by suicide at MDC. An electrical fire once left inmates without heat for several days.

A lawyer for detainee Edwin Corder, who died there from injuries sustained in a fight, told The New York Times that the facility is “an overcrowded, understaffed, and neglected federal jail that is hell on earth.”

Lawyers for Combs cited several of these concerns in a letter to the judge. They also argued that other judges “have recognized that the conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center are not fit for pretrial detention.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky judge denied Combs’ request to be released on a $50 million bond Tuesday, stating she has “very significant concerns” about his substance abuse and “what appears to be anger issues.”

Following Tarnofsky’s decision, Agnifilo told reporters outside the courthouse that his team would appeal it in a hearing set for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

Agnifilo alleged that Combs arrived in NYC on September 5 and came to the city “to turn himself in” but law enforcement had other plans.

“The government didn’t want him to turn himself in because then they can ask for detention, so they go and they arrest him,” Agnifilo said, adding Combs was doing “fine” because he is “a fighter.”

“This was a 10-year relationship,” he said, presumably about R&B singer Cassie Ventura. “There’s no coercion, there’s no crime. This is basically someone who brought a civil case and now is finding themselves as a witness in a criminal case. We’re going to fight this case with everything we have, as is he, and eventually, he’s going to be shown to be innocent.”

If convicted, Combs’ one count of racketeering conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. One count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The transportation for purposes of prostitution charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Family Support

Combs’ sons Justin Combs, Quincy Brown, and King Combs all supported their father in court on Tuesday, surrounded by cameras as they entered and left the courthouse.

None of the three men have publically addressed Combs’ indictment, but King Combs did share glimpses of himself enjoying NYC nightlife in Instagram posts on September 8 and September 13.

The Context

Combs’ arrest comes nearly six months after federal authorities conducted a sex trafficking investigation raid on his Miami and Los Angeles homes. Combs has also been the subject of 10 civil lawsuits concerning sexual abuse, misconduct, and sex trafficking.

His headline-grabbing legal troubles began in November when Combs and his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, quickly settled a lawsuit in which she alleged sexual and physical abuse.

In May, CNN released elevator security footage of Combs physically assaulting Cassie in a hotel in 2016.

An unsealed indictment released on Tuesday alleges Combs forced victims into sex acts he called “Freak Offs.” Federal prosecutors claim Combs used “used force” to “cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often electronically recorded.”

Law enforcement agents seized various “Freak Off” supplies, including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, during the raids on Combs’ homes in March, US Attorney Damian Williams announced Tuesday.

They also recovered electronic devices containing photos and videos of the “Freak Offs,” as well as three AR-15 rifles, ammunition, and a large-capacity drum magazine.

The indictment states Combs’ alleged criminal activity dates back 16 years ago when he allegedly committed racketeering starting in 2008. He reportedly started sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution in 2009.

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