Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs are shutting down claims about a potential second victim in the jailed rapper’s alleged sex-trafficking operation, saying federal prosecutors “misled the court and concealed the true facts.”
The disgraced hip-hop mogul, who was arrested on Sept. 16 on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, filed yet another request for bail on Friday, citing “new evidence,” “changed circumstances” and a “significantly updated proposed bail package.”
The 55-year-old Grammy winner has been spending his days at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center as he awaits the start of his trial on May 5.
In court documents filed in Manhattan federal court Friday, Combs’ legal team requested his immediate release from jail so that he can adequately aid in his own defense and prepare for trial.
According to the 27-page document, reviewed by the Daily News, Combs’ attorneys say the defense has received more than 23 terabytes of new material over the past six weeks. The discovery not only includes evidence that “refutes” the core sex-trafficking allegations, but “negates the government’s claim at the initial detention hearing that there is a potential second victim,” they say.
In regards to his charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, the original indictment mentioned only one unnamed victim, believed to be Combs’ ex-girlfriend, 38-year-old Cassie Ventura. But prosecutors later made allegations of a second sex-trafficking victim and said Combs’ contact with her was evidence of obstruction.
In the motion filed on Friday, the rapper’s legal team disputed those claims, saying the woman in question is “not a victim at all.”
“Despite the government’s claim … that this woman is a sex-trafficking victim, the defense has learned the government has not even spoken to her,” his lawyers state in the motion.
They claim prosecutors knew she was never the target of the rapper’s alleged obstruction, saying “the government clearly misled the court and concealed the true facts during the initial bail hearing.”
Combs has been denied bail multiple times since his arrest. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His attorneys had no comment on Friday’s filing.
