Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We’ll find out why today will be almost like any other Wednesday in Part 59 of State Supreme Court in Manhattan. We’ll also get details about the sex-trafficking and racketeering charges that the music mogul Sean Combs is facing.
Today will be almost like a usual Wednesday in Part 59 of State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
During the seven-week hush-money trial of Donald Trump in Part 59, Wednesdays were a day off. It was a day when few reporters filed into Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom, and few television camera crews jockeyed for positions outside the courthouse.
Merchan spent his Wednesdays attending to procedural matters involving other cases before him and presiding over Manhattan Mental Health Court, as he has done for 13 of his 17 years on the bench.
But weeks ago, Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for this morning — a Wednesday. Then, citing the “unique time frame this matter currently finds itself in,” Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26.
The postponement left a hole in the calendar for this morning. But court will be in session this afternoon. Merchan will be dealing with procedural matters involving several defendants in a retail theft-and-fencing case, a three-year investigation by the state attorney general’s Organized Crime Task Force and the New York Police Department. The authorities accused more than 41 people in a scheme to steal designer clothing, cosmetics, coffee and gift cards — and to resell them on eBay.
The timing of the Trump trial “was inconvenient,” Brian Hutchinson, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said. “We didn’t feel anything from that case other than that.”
Also on the calendar this afternoon is a mental health case that Merchan did not reschedule, even when the Trump sentencing was planned for this morning.
The defendant in that case is a man accused of burglary and weapons possession. He joined the mental health program, which is for defendants charged with felonies and diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Those who are accepted enter a guilty plea and undergo carefully monitored treatment and judicial supervision for as long as two years. Those who make it through can have their charges reduced or dismissed.
Trump himself will be miles away today, at the Nassau Coliseum, for a rally that was originally scheduled to coincide with the sentencing and was almost canceled after Merchan put it off.
My colleague Nicholas Fandos writes that the rally was one of a handful of campaign events that Trump’s team improvised during the trial, when his days were spoken for. His presence in Merchan’s courtroom was required, and his campaign could not send him on far-off appearances. After one day in court in August, Trump went to a bodega in Harlem where a clerk had stabbed a man after a confrontation. Trump blasted Alvin Bragg, the district attorney who filed charges against the clerk — and also brought the hush-money case against him.
Trump’s visit to Long Island probably won’t change the outcome in November: Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a comfortable margin in New York.
But there is money to be made. Joseph Cairo Jr., the chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party, has organized a fund-raiser. A reserved seat costs $5,000. Having a photo taken with Trump is priced at $30,000, and the “V.I.P. Experience” costs $250,000 — a chance to chat briefly with Trump, take a photo with him and watch the rally from a “premium seat.”
It could net as much as $5 million. But at least three congressional Republicans struggling to hold onto swing seats this fall want nothing to do with the event.
Representatives Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro, both first-term congressmen from the Hudson Valley, said they would not attend. Taylor Weyeneth, a spokesman for Representative Brandon Williams of Syracuse, went a step further, saying that even “if we weren’t in session, we’d be in our district speaking with constituents.”
Weather
Expect showers with temperatures in the low 70s. For tonight, showers are expected to continue with temperature in the high 60s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Oct. 3 (Rosh Hashana).
The latest New York news
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Fallout from a subway shooting: Officers fired at a knife-wielding man in Brooklyn who they said had not paid the fare, striking him and several bystanders. Critics raised questions about the use of lethal force, particularly in a tight, crowded space.
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A governor and the House: Gov. Kathy Hochul, who bristles at the notion that she deserved blame for the Democrats’ poor showing in the 2022 midterms, has rebuilt the state’s Democratic Party to help flip key swing seats in November.
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Afro Cuban sound on Broadway: The stage musical “Buena Vista Social Club” is set to open at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on March 19. The show had an Off Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company in late 2023.
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New season at the New York Philharmonic: The orchestra’s season opens while it faces an unresolved labor contract and a misconduct inquiry without a chief executive.
Sean Combs is denied bail on sex trafficking charges
The music mogul Sean Combs went to jail on Tuesday after he was denied bail on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges that were a stunning repudiation of his public image.
Federal prosecutors accused Combs of being the boss of a criminal enterprise that threatened and abused women. The prosecutors say he coerced them to participate against their will in drug-fueled orgies with male prostitutes. An indictment unsealed on Tuesday said the women were threatened with violence or the loss of financial support if they refused.
Combs pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers asked a magistrate to release him, suggesting a $50 million bond. Prosecutors countered that he was “dangerous and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community,” citing the threats of violence outlined in the indictment and weapons found in raids on his homes in March, including AR-15-style rifles.
The magistrate, Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, turned down the bail request, citing Combs’s anger issues and substance abuse history.
Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’s lawyers, said that Tarnofksy’s decision would be appealed. Agnifilo said earlier that Combs was “going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might.”
During the hearing before Tarnofsky, Agnifilo began Combs’s defense against the indictment, saying that the sex-trafficking charge, which involves Combs’s former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, was based on consensual sex over a 10-year relationship.
My colleagues Ben Sisario and Julia Jacobs write that Combs — who was influential in making hip-hop a global commercial force — has been trailed by accusations of violence. But he was unscathed until a series of civil lawsuits over the past year accused him of sexual assault and raised other allegations of misconduct. His business empire began to crumble as a federal investigation swirled around him.
The indictment included graphic descriptions of what it cited Combs as calling “freak offs” — “highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity” fueled by drugs that could go on for days. The government said that women at these events were plied with drugs to keep them “obedient” and were coerced to participate in sex with prostitutes.
No victims were named in the indictment, and the sex-trafficking count mentioned only an anonymous “Victim 1.”
But the descriptions of the events appear to mirror accusations made in a lawsuit last year by Ventura, who signed with his Bad Boy label in 2005 when she was 19. She settled the case after just one day, with Combs denying any wrongdoing.
METROPOLITAN diary
What’s on Third?
Dear Diary:
I was walking down Third Avenue on a sunny Sunday afternoon with two strangers trailing alongside me. A young woman walking in front of us was talking on her cellphone.
“Meet me at J.G. Melon on Second,” she said.
In unison, the strangers and I corrected her.
“Third,” we said.
The woman turned and looked at us.
“Melon’s on Second,” she said again.
“Third,” we repeated like a chorus.
The woman sighed.
“The people behind me are insisting it’s on Third,” she said. “They don’t know one another, so I think they must be right.”
I hope she enjoyed her burger.
— Michelle F. Johnson
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Kate Christobek, Francis Mateo, Steven Moity and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post With Trump Sentencing Delayed, It’s an Ordinary Wednesday appeared first on New York Times.
