A day after four John Does and two Jane Does filed the latest assault lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the ‘Bad Boy For Life’ performer now says “the government should be required to identify its alleged victims” in his sex trafficking case.
“This case is unique, in part because of the number of individuals levying allegations against Mr. Combs due to his celebrity status, wealth, and the publicity of his previously settled lawsuit and the grand jury leaks and false inflammatory statements by the DHS agents, as outlined in our previous motion,” wrote Combs’ Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos-led defense lawyers Tuesday to US District Judge Arun Subramanian “This has had a pervasive ripple effect, resulting in a torrent of allegations by unidentified complainants, spanning from the false to outright absurd.”
Read Sean Combs’ lawyers’ letter to a federal judge to have victims identified here
Watch on Deadline
“These swirling allegations have created a hysterical media circus that, if left unchecked, will irreparably deprive Mr. Combs of a fair trial, if they haven’t already,” the duo added, potentially poisoning the judicial well for later for the 54-year old Grammy winner.
“Without clarity from the government, Mr. Combs has no way of knowing which allegations the government is relying on for purposes of the Indictment,” the letter continues leaning towards government over reach. “Other than Victim-1, there is no way for Mr. Combs to determine who the other unidentified alleged victims are. The number of potential alleged victims and the length of time alleged in the Indictment both weigh in favor of a bill of particulars.”
By “outright absurd,” the attorneys mean the six new lawsuits that were put in the court docket on October 14 to join the now around 20 people, women and men, who have accused Sean Combs of drugging them, beating them, threatening them, forcing them to participate in his so-called “Freak Offs,” and raping them. As the September 15 arrested ‘All About the Benjamins’ rapper sits in Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn facing life behind bars if found guilty at a trial set to start on May 5, 2025, Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee promises that he has over 100 more Combs victims soon to come forward with lawsuits of their own.
US Attorney Damian Williams office had no comment on today’s defense filing. However, in the four page missive, Agnifilo and Geragos say the other side “opposes disclosure of alleged victims’ names at this stage.”
Unsurprisingly, the prosecutors are following the standard protocol of keeping alleged sexual assault victims names out of the public record for their safety. “This is all about shaming the alleged victims, it’s part of the defense’ offense course of action,” a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case told Deadline. “They’ll try anything.”
Additionally, what makes this latest move so unique, to put it politely, on another level by the Combs and his defense team is that they already know by their own admission who several of the alleged victims are.
Specifically, as they admit, the defense know who “Victim-1,” is. Plus they know who is “Individual-1,” and the recipient of a November 19, 20203 phone call from Combs about the emerging allegations against him and seeking her “friendship.”
As was noted today in the letter to the judge and in documents filed as recently as October 9 by the defense, it’s clear that everybody knows “Victim-1” is. “
Victim-1” is the Notorious B.I.G. sideman’s’ former longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Ventura sued Combs last fall in a quickly settled action for years of assault and abuse. Hours after Ventura’s very vivid suit landed in the court docket, Combs denied everything — as he has in every case so far. Then, he paid Ventura a reported $30 million to kill the case within 24 hours. Ventura’s claims of the violence the ‘Me & U’ singer lived with from Combs over their more than decade long relationship were given further credence in May when 2016 hotel security footage of a towel wearing Combs pummeling Ventura in the corridor of an upmarket LA hotel was made public.
The caller on the other end of the line with Combs last November has come up in various documents with both sides arguing the validity of the feds’ witness tampering allegations over the nature and intent of that particular call. Everyone obviously knowing who this person is, the defense have accused the feds of concealing evidence that would refute the obstruction claims.
If exploding cars are any hint, “Individual-1” is rapper Kid Cudi, who saw one of his vehicles arsoned after a brief affair with Ventura in 2011/2012 “Multiple witnesses would also testify to the defendant bragging about his role in destroying Individual-1’s car,” states a September 17 letter to the then judge on the case from US Attorney Damian Williams.
Calls of “multiple witness” make it kind of hard to hide someone’s identity, especially when it has been out there or months already.
Similar to their October 9 claims that Homeland Security agents this spring leaked that 2016 surveillance video (which Diddy bought eight years ago for $50,000), the defense appears to be in conflict with their own facts. In the case of the hotel video leak, the defenses buried in their filing’s footnotes that prosecutors told them they never had the vile video and neither did DHS, something they choose to skid past.
Having said that, coming months after federal agents raided Combs LA and Miami homes, last month’s indictment for racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution does cover a wide swath of time and activities. “This could be interpreted as treating Mr. Combs’ entire sexual history over the past sixteen years as part of the alleged criminal conspiracy,” the defense lawyers said in writing to the judge today.
“Mr. Combs also anticipates that the discovery will contain voluminous evidence of consensual sexual activity – making it all the more difficult for Mr. Combs to ascertain which of his prior sexual partners now claim, years later, that they felt coerced,” they add, with no sense of grim irony.
As this matter and the criminal case moves along, Combs’ lawyers are taking a third swing at getting their incarcerated client out with their October 8 motion for pretrial release to the US Court of Appeals for the Second District.
Oddly, Tuesday also saw a posting on Combs’ Instagram account wishing his youngest daughter a Happy Birthday. According to officials, Combs should have access to such social media.So either he is posting under the radar or giving someone else his IG password to post for him.
The post Sean “Diddy” Combs Wants Feds To Give Him Victims’ Names For Sex Trafficking Trial Defense – Even Though He Has A Lot Of Them Already appeared first on Deadline.
