By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is due to return to court on Friday for a hearing over his bid to be released on $50-million bail from the Brooklyn jail where the music mogul has been held for 10 weeks ahead of his May 5, 2025 trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Combs has been denied bail three times since his arrest, with multiple judges citing a risk he might tamper with witnesses. The rapper and producer pleaded not guilty on Sept. 17 to charges that he used his business empire, including his record label Bad Boy Entertainment, to sexually abuse women, including by having them take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak offs” with male sex workers who were sometimes transported across state lines.
Combs, 55, has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian is scheduled to consider his bid for release at a 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) hearing in Manhattan federal court.
His lawyers have suggested a $50-million bail package backed by his $48-million Florida mansion. They have proposed he be monitored around the clock by security personnel, be subjected to home detention, and have no contact with alleged victims or witnesses.
They have also questioned why Combs is behind bars while federal prosecutors in the neighboring Eastern District of New York sought pre-trial release on a $10-million bond for longtime Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries on sex-trafficking charges last month. Jeffries pleaded not guilty.
“There is no legal basis for continuing to force Mr. Combs to prepare for trial from jail,” his lawyers wrote in a Thursday court filing.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which brought the charges against Combs, countered that Jeffries is 80 years old with no criminal history, whereas Combs has prior arrests. They noted that federal agents recovered rifles with defaced serial numbers from searches of Combs’ residences this year.
Prosecutors also said Combs had contacted witnesses through third parties while held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and tried to hide those communications from law enforcement.
“It strains credulity to believe that Combs will stop engaging in criminal conduct and abide by conditions of release,” prosecutors wrote in a Friday court filing.
Subramanian is also expected to consider Combs’ lawyers’ argument that new evidence sheds light on a 2016 hotel surveillance video of him physically assaulting former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, and undermined part of the prosecution’s justification for detaining him.
His lawyers wrote this month that the video is not proof of a coerced “freak off,” as prosecutors allege, but rather a “minutes-long glimpse” into a “complex” romantic relationship.
This week, Subramanian ordered prosecutors to destroy their copies of handwritten notes that Combs took in jail, pending a decision on whether they could be used as evidence or were covered by attorney-client privilege. A government investigator photographed the notes during a sweep of the jail.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rod Nickel)