Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail after third attempt

Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in prison while he awaits trial. A federal judge rejected his request for $50 million bail.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian found Wednesday that no release conditions can ensure the safety of the community. He pointed to Combs’ alleged history of violence, which included using firearms, kidnapping and arson to use his vast business empire to intimidate victims and witnesses, as well as evidence that suggested he had attempted to intercept communications with people who he was barred from contacting us in order to conceal it.

“There is evidence that there is a serious risk of witness manipulation,” the ruling said.

The court made the decision after a bail hearing last week. The decision was delayed while awaiting more information about Combs’ communications with others while in prison.

Prosecutors had alleged that since his incarceration at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Combs had accessed other inmates’ phone lines to avoid scrutiny and contact witnesses. They also argued that he used an unauthorized messaging app to communicate with third parties and forced his family to write public birthday messages to him that were allegedly designed to influence potential jurors.

In turn, Combs’ defense team, led by attorney Marc Agnifilo, claimed that prosecutors improperly seized confidential material from Combs’ jail cell in a raid that was confidential to the attorney and his client. Before the bail hearing, the court ruled that prosecutors must delete images of Combs’ handwritten notes about legal strategies and potential witnesses.

Wednesday’s order emphasized that the government had provided direct evidence of Combs’ violence. They include a 2016 video of Combs attacking his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel, as well as text messages between the two that show she was seriously injured. “I have a black eye and a fat lip,” she wrote in a text following the incident. “I still have crazy bruises.”

In support of bail, Combs claimed the evidence did not support a sex trafficking allegation. In his view, it was a toxic, sometimes violent relationship.

“But regardless of whether this is true, there is compelling evidence of Combs’ propensity for violence,” Subramanian wrote.

The court also said Combs could tamper with witnesses. It cited his communications with Ventura, who was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, and the rap mogul deleting messages with her to hide the alleged manipulation.

Phone records confirmed that Combs and Ventura exchanged several messages from June to August, but they could not be recovered from his phone. Additionally, Combs’ interactions with the witness were found to be “directly contradictory” to his attorney’s representations in court at a September hearing that his client “did not initiate contact with grand jury witnesses,” it said the judgment.

There is evidence that Combs violated prison rules while in prison to conceal his communications with third parties. One example: He paid other inmates to use the phone access code numbers they used to make calls in prison to contact people he was forbidden from speaking to, according to the ruling. He also instructed family members and his lawyers to include other people in the three-way calls so that their communications would be more difficult to trace. His “willingness to circumvent rules in a manner that would make it more difficult to monitor his communications is strong evidence that the court cannot be reasonably assured that the conditions of release are sufficient,” the order states.

Two other judges had twice denied Combs bail because they feared he might tamper with witnesses.

Federal prosecutors accuse Combs of being at the head of a vast criminal enterprise in which he used his various companies to attack and traffic women since at least 2008. The indictment specifically references a series of events called “Freak Offs” in which Combs allegedly hired commercial sex workers who then “used violence, threats of violence, and coercion to induce the victims to engage in extensive sexual acts” that were recorded and could last for days.

Combs pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial date was set for May 5, 2025.