Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers have lost a bid to impose a gag order on government agencies involved in investigating his federal racketeering and sex trafficking criminal case, whom Combs’ team has accused of leaking information to the press.
In a Friday order reviewed by USA TODAY, Judge Arun Subramanian denied to adopt either proposed order filed by the prosecution and the defense. Instead, he wrote, both sides are expected to abide by existing laws prohibiting lawyers, investigators and government agents from revealing grand jury proceedings and releasing non-public information that might interfere with a fair trial.
“To be clear, this order isn’t based on a finding that there has been any wrongdoing thus far, as the Court has made no findings at this juncture relating to defendant’s allegations that information related to the case has been leaked,” Subramanian wrote. “The point of this order is to help ensure that nothing happens from now on that would interfere with a fair trial.”
When reached by USA TODAY, an attorney for Combs declined to comment.
Earlier this month, Combs’ lawyers had asked the judge to issue an order prohibiting federal employees from disclosing evidence to the news media that they say is “undermining Mr. Combs’ right to a fair trial.” The defense and U.S. attorneys discussed the issue but were unable to agree on the language for a joint order, instead submitting their own individual proposals.
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In a letter addressed Friday, Combs’ team called the judge’s attention to a New York Post article that had published that day and purported to quote “a federal law enforcement source who is involved in the investigation” who issued comments on Combs’ alleged freak offs.
“Those remarks, if made by an agent involved in the investigation or prosecution of this case, are plainly improper,” Subramanian wrote. “This order requires the Government to notify the agencies involved in this case or the related investigation of their obligations under” Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) and the U.S. District Courts for Southern and Eastern New York’s Local Civil Rule 23.1 “and to furnish this order to them.”
The judge added, “The Court will take appropriate action for any violation of the rules.”
Combs’ team’s request for an evidentiary hearing to look into alleged government misconduct is still pending.
As stated in a letter filed in court earlier this month, Combs’ team believes that since March the government has been “strategically leaking confidential grand jury material and information, including the 2016 Intercontinental videotape, in order to prejudice the public and potential jurors against Mr. Combs.”
This has raised “public hostility against Mr. Combs in advance of trial,” they wrote. In May, CNN released 2016 hotel surveillance footage showing Combs kicking, hitting and dragging ex-girlfriend Cassie near the elevators of a hotel. Combs, in a video, apologized for his “inexcusable” behavior; his lawyers have painted the abuse as the result of a toxic relationship rather than evidence of sex trafficking.
The hip-hop superstar was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on Sept. 16 and arraigned on sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution charges the following day. Investigators say the 54-year-old elaborately schemed to use his finances and status in the entertainment industry to “fulfill his sexual desires” in a “recurrent and widely known” pattern of abuse.
He has been incarcerated in the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since then and has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty on all federal criminal charges and denying wrongdoing alleged in mounting civil lawsuits against him over the past year.
All of Combs’ attempts thus far to get him released from jail until his May 5 trial have been denied. They are seeking an appeals court judgment that would overturn a Sept. 18 decision to deny his request to be released from jail on conditions that include a $50 million bond.