Topline
Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared in court Wednesday for what is likely to be his last court appearance for several months in his federal sex trafficking case that will see him spend the Christmas holidays in prison despite several attempts by his attorneys to have him released to house arrest. (Here is a complete list of the allegations against Combs.)
Timeline
December 18Combs appeared in court for a brief hearing in his federal case at which federal prosecutors said they plan to disclose all available evidence to his defense team by the end of the year in preparation for a May trial date. One court reporter described Combs as appearing “thinner” and “grayer” than when he was last seen in public, and the music mogul wished spectators a “Happy Holidays” as he left.
December 2Maurene Comey, former FBI director James Comey’s daughter who litigated the case in which Maxwell was convicted for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein, on Monday notified the federal court in the Southern District of New York that she has joined the prosecution against Combs.
November 27Federal judge Arun Subramanian denied Combs’ request to be released on bail citing “compelling evidence of Combs’s propensity for violence.” Subramanian’s ruling also stated that there was evidence supporting “a serious risk of witness tampering,” along with evidence that he “violated Bureau of Prisons regulations during his pretrial detention to obscure his communications with third parties.” The judge also wrote the government prosecutors have shown “by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
November 25Attorneys for the federal government argued against Combs’ push to get released on $50 million bail and a laundry list of other conditions, telling Judge Arun Subramanian in a letter the package “does not come close to ensuring the security of the community” or to ensuring Combs won’t interfere with the case or try to flee before the trial—citing an alleged “pattern of violence” toward women and his own staff. In their own letter, defense attorneys argued Combs has been unconstitutionally held in jail and silenced since he was first arrested in September, that the government has launched a campaign against him to keep him from getting a fair trial and that Combs “is not required to sit idly by and acquiesce to all of this.” Subramanian is expected to make a decision on bail by Thanksgiving.
Loading...
November 22Subramanian heard arguments from attorneys on both sides but punted a decision to the following week on whether Combs should be released on bail. Subramanian rejected the idea Combs be kept under house arrest at a home with a boat dock in Miami but seemed open to potentially releasing him to confinement with around-the-clock security at a three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He asked lawyers to submit further arguments in writing by Monday, Nov. 25.
November 19Subramanian told prosecutors to “get rid of” their copies of handwritten notes taken by Combs in jail, making the decision as he considers legal arguments from Combs’ lawyers that the notes were subject to attorney-client privilege and counter arguments from prosecutors who accused Combs of writing about a witness tampering plot.
November 15In a filing opposing Combs’ request to be released on bail, prosecutors claim Combs has attempted to “corruptly influence witness testimony” by asking his family members to reach out to victims and potential witnesses and create “narratives” to affect their opinion, while also asking his children to post a video to social media in celebration of his birthday and ensuring the video had “his desired effect on potential jury members in this case.”
November 12In “The Downfall of Diddy: Inside the Freak-Offs,” Ray J claims high-profile celebrities are “reaching out to victims” and offering them money in exchange for avoiding any public exposure, and aspiring singer-songwriter Tanea Wallace described her experience at a 2018 party where she said she saw minors “dressed up like Harajuku Barbies, red lipstick, looking like real sexy.”
November 8Combs’ attorneys again requested the mogul be released on bail with a $50 million bond with a laundry list of new conditions, including home detention in Miami or New York City, security lockdown and no internet access, which is scheduled to be heard at a hearing on Nov. 22.
November 4In a video posted by his son, Combs spoke to his children on the phone on his 55th birthday Monday and said, “I can’t wait to see y’all. I just want to say that I’m proud of y’all, especially the girls. I mean, all y’all just for being strong.”
November 3Comb’s lawyers sent a letter to Subramanian asking he place all potential witnesses under a gag order until a federal trial scheduled for May, claiming a “deluge of improper pretrial publicity that is undermining Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial.” (The request comes after a friend of Comb’s late girlfriend Kim Porter spoke outside a courthouse in Manhattan, saying he’d testified before a grand jury and has footage of Combs raping and sexually assaulting several people, including minors).
October 31Ty Stiklorius, John Legend’s manager, wrote in a New York Times piece that she herself experienced a “terrifying situation” in which she says she was locked in a bedroom while attending a party hosted by Combs in St. Barts in the late 1990s and “managed to talk her way out” of what she assumed was an abnormal experience, but later realized “what happened that night was no aberration—it was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry.”
October 28Federal authorities said they’d carried out an “interagency operation” at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where Combs is awaiting trial, but did not provide specific details about what was done inside the facility, which has been the target of rampant criticism from the Combs team and the location of several crimes in recent months, including a murder-for-hire plot and the stabbing deaths of two inmates.
October 25In a letter submitted to the court Friday, Combs’ attorneys requested a gag order be implemented for all federal officials involved in his case, specifically citing a New York Post article that quotes a “federal law enforcement source who is involved in the investigation” as proof the Department of Homeland Security is purposefully interfering with Combs’ right to a fair trial (in October, Combs’ legal team claimed DHS leaked an incriminating video of Combs to CNN, which the agency denied). A judge later called the quotes in the article “plainly improper” but rejected the gag order request.
October 22Two of Combs’ seven children—Quincy Brown, Combs’ adopted 33-year-old son, and Chance Combs, his 18-year-old daughter with Sarah Chapman—made a joint post on Instagram calling the last month “devastating” for their family and defending their father from what they called “accusations, conspiracy theories and false narratives.”
October 15Combs returned to Instagram for the first time since his arrest in September with a post marking the second birthday of his youngest daughter, named Love Sean Combs (he’d previously deleted every post on the social media account as allegations piled up against him, but has posted a total of three times since July, each time with photos of his children).
October 11A U.S. Appeals court referred Combs’ latest request for bail to a panel of three judges, but ruled he will remain behind bars until a decision is made.
October 10Combs appeared in court for the first time since his arrest, where a trial date of May 5 was set for him to face federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
October 9Combs’ team filed a memo alleging that the Department of Homeland Security leaked a surveillance video that showed him abusing his ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, though prosecutors have denied the allegations and said they did not obtain that video until it was made public by CNN.
October 8Lawyers for Combs filed paperwork asking he be allowed to await trial outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center where he resides, claiming the initial decision to deny him bail was unfairly “distorted” by the attention on the case (the initial judge, who has since been replaced, ruled Combs should stay in jail so he can’t use his money and influence to interfere in the government’s case against him).
October 6Janice Small Combs, Sean Combs’ mother, said in a statement through her family’s attorney she is “devastated and profoundly saddened” by the allegations against her son, adding those accusing him of misconduct are “seeking a financial gain” and likened Combs to “many individuals” who have been “wrongfully convicted due to their past actions or mistakes”—though she also said Combs “may have been not entirely truthful” when denying assault allegations raised by his ex-girlfriend Ventura.
September 30Lawyers for Combs filed a notice asking the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Southern District of New York to overturn the decision to hold him in prison while he awaits trial, a choice Judge Andrew Carter made citing concerns Combs had allegedly tampered with witnesses who had been contacted as part of the investigation against him (the request was not granted).
September 26A documentary was released for streaming on Tubi and featured an interview with Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo—who addressed a leaked surveillance video of Combs shoving and kicking ex-girlfriend Ventura—in which he called the indictment a takedown of a “successful Black man” and said he doesn’t expect Combs to accept a plea bargain.
September 24Combs is sharing a unit with disgraced Bankman-Fried at the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to The New York Times, as the former crypto mogul serves out a 25-year sentence in prison for counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering linked to a scheme that lost former FTX customers, lenders and investors several billion dollars.
September 18Combs’ lawyers cited “horrific” conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York in a request for bail—which included a $50 million bond offer, GPS monitoring and strict limitations on visitors—that was denied by U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter, who said the conditions weren’t enough to ensure the safety of the community.
September 17A federal court in Manhattan unsealed charges against Combs for racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, alleging he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
September 16Combs was arrested in Manhattan after being indicted by a grand jury.
May 29Sources told CNN federal investigators were getting close to filing charges against Combs, and that plaintiffs who had filed individual civil lawsuits against him had been interviewed as part of the case.
March 25Federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Florida and California in relation to a federal sex trafficking investigation.
November 20-23A $30 million lawsuit filed by Ventura kicked off a series of criminal complaints against Combs that have included rape, sexual assault, sex trafficking and other claims (see all of the allegations here).
Loading...