Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers plan to appeal today a federal judge’s decision to hold him without bail in his sex trafficking case in New York City.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors Tuesday and denied the hip-hop mogul bail when he appeared in federal court after he was charged in an indictment with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges during the same hearing in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
Combs is being held at a detention center across the East River from Manhattan in Brooklyn, New York, according to online records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Combs, told CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan before Wednesday’s hearing that the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
“It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” Agnifilo said.
Prosecutors argued in a letter to Tarnofsky that Combs is a flight risk and “poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.”
A different judge, U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr., is expected to hear Wednesday afternoon’s bail appeal.
Agnifilo denied the allegations against his client and vowed to fight for his release.
“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,” Agnifilo told reporters outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse after Tuesday’s hearing.
Prosecutors accused Combs of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women at events Combs referred to as “Freak Offs.”
“The ‘Freak Offs’ sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics, such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, of the Southern District of New York, told reporters Tuesday.
The charges come months after federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March and found three defaced AR-15s and a large-capacity drum magazine, Williams said. Prosecutors accused Combs of using guns to intimidate and threaten victims and witnesses.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday refers to an incident caught on hotel security cameras in 2016. CNN aired the footage earlier this year, which appears to show Combs attacking the singer Cassie, his former girlfriend, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway. In May, Combs apologized for the incident, saying his behavior was “inexcusable” and that he took “full responsibility” for his actions.
In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of rape and abuse during their relationship; he denied the accusations. They reached a settlement the following day.
Read the indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs
contributed to this report.
