Sean “Diddy” Combs has hugged each of his lawyers after he was led into court for his first appearance before the judge who is expected to preside over the hip-hop powerbroker’s trial on sex trafficking charges.
Combs was taken to Manhattan federal court from a Brooklyn jail for the appearance before Judge Arun Subramanian.
The hearing is expected to result in deadlines being set for lawyers on each side to submit arguments that will establish the boundaries for a trial that Combs’s lawyers want to start in April or May. Prosecutors have not expressed a preference.
The judge was assigned to the case after another judge recused himself based on his past associations with lawyers in the case.
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to charges lodged against him last month. The charges include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking based on allegations that go back to 2008.
An indictment alleges he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Late on Wednesday, lawyers for Combs submitted court papers blaming the Department of Homeland Security for a leak to the media of a video of Combs punching and kicking his former protege and girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway in 2016.
The lawyers claimed the video aired by CNN in May along with other alleged government leaks “have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr Combs of his right to a fair trial”.
After the video was broadcast, Combs posted a social media video apologising, saying “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now”.
Federal prosecutors responded to the defence lawyers’ claims by telling the judge in a letter that the government was not in possession of the video before it was aired on CNN.
Combs’s lawyers have been trying to get the founder of Bad Boy Records freed on bail since his September 16 arrest.
Two judges have concluded that Combs would be a danger to the community if he was freed. At a bail hearing three weeks ago, a judge rejected a 50 million dollar bail package, including home detention and electronic monitoring, after concluding that Combs was a threat to tamper with witnesses and obstruct a continuing investigation.
In an appeal over the bail rulings to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for Combs on Tuesday asked a panel of judges to reverse the bail findings, saying the proposed package “would plainly stop him from posing a danger to anyone or contacting any witnesses”.
They urged the appeals court to reject the findings of a lower court judge who they said had “endorsed the government’s exaggerated rhetoric and ordered Mr Combs detained”.
