Diddy accuses FBI agents of “leaking” the grand jury

• Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs condemned government “leaks” related to his sex trafficking case.
• The matter could be discussed at Combs' next court appearance, scheduled for Thursday in Manhattan.
• He is calling for “a hearing and other remedies” against what he calls damaging leaks from DHS agents.

Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs say unlawful federal government disclosures, including information about his grand jury and searches of his homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, damaged his sex trafficking case.

The alleged leaks “have resulted in damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only weigh on the jury and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial,” his lawyers argued in a 17-page motion filed Wednesday evening.

Combs attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos raised the allegations in the filing with the federal judge in Manhattan who is now hearing the case.

They are asking the judge to “conduct an evidentiary hearing to examine government misconduct related to the leaks,” they wrote.

They also demand that prosecutors and other members of the government be gagged to prevent leaks to the media and that officials, particularly agents from the Department of Homeland Security, be ordered to turn over “emails, documents and records” related to the alleged leaks, according to the motion.

The defense motion singled out homeland security, although prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the U.S. Department of Justice also accused prosecutors of failing behind the scenes to stop the revelations despite repeated complaints from the defense.

Under federal law, all Justice Department employees, not just its lawyers, are prohibited from sharing damaging information with the aim of influencing a trial, the filing said.

“Regardless of what actions the U.S. Attorney’s Office took, the leaks continued after the arrest,” the motion states.

“A hearing is necessary to determine exactly what DHS did and did not do regarding these leaks and what the U.S. Attorney’s Office did and did not do to stop them,” his lawyers wrote.

Spokespeople for the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan did not immediately respond to the filing Wednesday evening.

Only a DHS leak could explain the presence of media at Combs' Los Angeles home when a search warrant was executed on March 25, the Wednesday evening filing said. The press showed up “even before the crime scene tape was recorded.”

Agents and a spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations soon confirmed to the press that the government was conducting an ongoing investigation into sex trafficking, the filing said.

“We believe there is a disturbing history of sex trafficking,” the New York Post on March 27 quoted an unnamed DHS source as confirming this. “We are responding to specific, detailed and explicit allegations,” the New York Post was told.

A DHS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

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More than 50 agents showed up as properties in LA and Miami were searched simultaneously. According to the Combs file, the agents used “military-style armored vehicles with dozens of heavily armed agents in full riot gear.”

“One would think that they were trying to retake Donbas instead of confiscating some phones and computers,” the lawyers joke.

“The show of force had no legitimate purpose – it was simply an attempt to attract more press attention, sensationalize the case and portray Mr. Combs as dangerous,” the filing continues.

Federal prosecutors said in Combs' indictment that they seized weapons and ammunition from the Miami property, “including three AR-15s with illegible serial numbers and a drum magazine.”

The indictment also alleged that “Combs himself carried or brandished firearms on more than one occasion to intimidate and threaten others, including victims and witnesses of his abuse.”

His lawyers insisted that Combs employed a security company and did not own the guns in his home.

The agents “conducted a particularly brutal and public search of Mr. Combs' homes, handcuffing Mr. Combs' innocent sons and then marching them away in front of a news helicopter and the press,” the filing says.

“This was an apparent attempt to convey that they had overwhelming evidence against Mr. Combs that justified the public and brutal treatment of even his children, who were handcuffed and abused by federal agents armed with assault rifles,” the filing says.

Unnamed DHS employees also “repeatedly leaked grand jury information and materials to the press in order to incite public hostility against Mr. Combs,” the filing continued.

The filing specifically alleges that Homeland Security was “by far the most likely source” of the 2016 surveillance video leaked to CNN in May that showed Combs hitting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the hallway of the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles , kicking and pulling. the main witness against him in the case.

The tape was leaked on one of the few days that former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan was not held because the former president had a day off to attend his son Barron's high school graduation, the defense claims.

Federal agents “would have known that May 17 was the perfect time, as it was a light news day due to the suspension of the Trump trial,” Combs' lawyers wrote.

The leaks continued in the months following the March searches, with unnamed agents telling multiple news outlets about an ongoing grand jury investigation, victim interviews and search warrant executions, the defense charges.

Even on September 18, three days after Combs' arrest, a source described as a “Department of Homeland Security agent” involved in the Miami raid told the New York Post that “the music mogul had rooms that clearly “devoted to sex”. with cameras everywhere.''

Combs' claim about the leaks was the most sensitive issue raised in a letter written by federal prosecutors and the defense on Wednesday to brief U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian on the issues to be heard at the next hearing court hearing scheduled for Thursday.

The two-page letter said Combs would ask Thursday to set a trial date in April or May 2025.

“The government will be available for trial on a date determined by the court, but the court has the discretion to set a trial date at the beginning of the case or at a later date,” prosecutors said in the letter.

The letter does not mention that new bail arguments will be made before Subramanian.

Combs has been held in a federal prison in Brooklyn since his Sept. 16 arrest, and two former district court judges have rejected his request to be released from home confinement in Miami on $50 million bail.

On Tuesday evening, his defense team filed a brief with an interim federal appeals court asking that bail denials be overturned at the district court level. Federal prosecutors have not yet responded to Combs' bail appeal.

Wednesday's letter also alerts the judge that the parties plan to discuss on Thursday what federal prosecutors described as “extensive” evidence in the case.

The defense will ask Thursday that the judge immediately set deadlines for prosecutors to disclose evidence, the letter said.

“The timely submission of these materials is critical to Mr. Combs’ ability to prepare his defense,” his attorneys wrote.

But the evidence prosecutors are expected to share with the defense as part of the investigation includes “several terabytes of electronic material,” prosecutors wrote, including electronic devices seized three weeks ago on the day of Combs' arrest.

Some of the prosecution's evidence came from Combs, prosecutors said, including physical evidence seized from his Miami home in March and hard drives turned over by the defense on Oct. 1.

Data from more than 40 of Combs' devices and accounts is still being extracted, including his “laptops, tablets, hard drives, cloud accounts, etc.,” prosecutors' letter said.

Prosecutors also said additional evidence came from “third-party electronics” or consisted of “business records from financial institutions, telephone companies, hotels, airlines and other companies.”

The first evidence was handed over to the defense on Monday, the prosecutor said. They assume that the remaining discoveries, including from third parties, will be handed over on a rolling basis until the end of the year.

On Thursday, “the government will be ready to answer any questions from the court” about the “status and expected timeline” for turning over that evidence to the defense.

Update: October 9, 2024 – This story has been updated to add details from the defense motion filed Wednesday evening.