By MICHAEL R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER and ANDREW DALTON NEW YORK — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn. Prosecutors argued against the arrangement, saying there was too great a risk that the hip-hop mogul could threaten or harm witnesses.
Combs’ lawyers offered a $50 million bail package — using his mansion as collateral — in exchange for releasing him to home detention with GPS monitoring and strict limitations on who could visit him. The defense and prosecution were wrangling over the request at a hearing Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, a U.
S. magistrate judge in Manhattan ordered Combs held without bail. Combs, 54, pleaded not guilty Tuesday after an indictment accused him of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, participated in and often recorded.
The events would sometimes last days, the indictment said. In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, center, is flanked by his defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, in Manhattan Federal Court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York.
(Elizabeth Williams via AP) FILE -Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs participates in “The Four” panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif.,.