Prosecutors filed an opposition to several motions in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ criminal case on Wednesday (October 30). According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, the prosecution urged a judge to reject Diddy’s request for an evidentiary hearing regarding leaks and a gag order.
“The Court should deny the Leak Motion for the simple reason that the defendant fails to show the leak of any grand jury material,” prosecutors argued. “Without any factual basis, the Leak Motion seeks to suppress highly probative evidence—a video of Combs brutally physically assaulting a victim in March 2016 that was published by a media outlet in May 2024—by claiming that it was grand jury material leaked by Government agents to CNN. But, as the defendant is fully aware, the video was not in the Government’s possession at the time of CNN’s publication and the Government has never, at any point, obtained the video through grand jury process. The defendant also complains about purported ‘law enforcement sources’ leaking other alleged grand jury material to the media in several news articles cited in his papers … Here, too, the defendant is grasping at straws.”
Prosecutors claimed Diddy was trying to “hijack the criminal proceeding” to fight numerous lawsuits against him. They said Diddy didn’t need a witness list six months before his sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial.
“The defendant cannot credibly claim that he will suffer unfair surprise at trial,” the prosecution wrote. “Rather, it is plain that the defendant’s request for a bill of particulars containing victim names is merely a vehicle to attempt to prematurely restrict the Government’s proof at trial and use these criminal proceedings to defend himself in the press against complainants in separate civil litigation. This improper request should be denied in its entirety, particularly here, where there are serious and ongoing concerns of victim and witness safety, tampering and intimidation.”
They added, “Defendant is essentially asking for either a blanket order that would apply indiscriminately to any individuals with claims against Combs and their lawyers or for a more limited order that would require the Government to identify its witnesses six months before trial. Not only would such relief be unprecedented, but the defendant should not be permitted to use a local criminal rule as a sword to gag civil claimants whether or not their statements were connected to this criminal proceeding.”
Prosecutors denied leaking grand jury material to the press. They insisted only one source – a purported Department of Homeland Security officer – was “plausibly connected” to their investigation in the articles cited by Diddy.
“Much of the information this source discusses was a matter of the public record at the time he or she made comments in September 2024,” the prosecution noted. “Additionally, while the Government agrees with the defense and the Court that extrajudicial commentary by law enforcement officers involved in the investigation in any way is inappropriate … an agent who merely participated in a search—who had no access to grand jury materials or even the Affidavit setting forth probable cause to search the defendant’s Miami House—is decidedly not a member of the Prosecution Team.”
Diddy’s trial is scheduled to begin in May 2025. He remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.