- Prosecutors took “improper possession” of Sean Combs’ handwritten notes, his lawyers said Monday.
- The notes were taken from his jail cell and include “privileged attorney-client details,” they said.
- His lawyers want an evidentiary hearing, at which prosecutors would explain what was taken and why.
Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday accused the prosecutors in his sex-trafficking case of improperly possessing sensitive notes he wrote by hand while in jail awaiting trial in Manhattan.
The handwritten notes and other material from Combs’ cell include “attorney-client privileged material,” his lawyers said in demanding a hearing to determine what was taken and why.
Prosecutors must explain who authorized “a search of Mr. Combs’ sleeping area, personal effects, and paperwork” at his federal jail in Brooklyn, his defense team said in a letter asking US District Court Judge Arun Subramanian to set an immediate hearing date.
“The targeted seizure of a pre-trial detainee’s work product and privileged materials — created in preparation for trial — is outrageous government conduct amounting to a substantive due process violation,” his lawyers wrote in the letter, signed by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo.
Combs has been held in a Brooklyn detention center since mid-September when he was arrested on a federal indictment alleging he engaged in a decadeslong pattern of physical and sexual violence against multiple victims, including at elaborate sex parties he called “freak offs.”
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers have said the sexual contact was consensual, and that his accusers have a financial incentive to lie.
Combs’ lawyers said in Monday’s letter that they only learned that federal prosecutors were in possession of privileged materials from their client’s jail cell late on Friday, during an ongoing legal battle over bail.
Prosecutors referenced the materials in a 30-page memorandum opposing Combs’ third bid at bail. Their arguments for keeping Combs detained included allegations that the multimillionaire music mogul was trying to obstruct justice by contacting witnesses, including a woman he hoped would publicly support him.
The prosecution’s bail memorandum did make mention of “notes from the defendant’s cell” that had been taken from Combs “during a pre-planned nationwide sweep of BOP facilities,” a reference to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Details of the handwritten notes were redacted from the prosecution memo.
Prosecutors assured the defense and the judge that any seized materials that qualified as “possibly privileged” were reviewed by an independent government “filter team” to remove any attorney-client communications that prosecutors are barred from seeing.
On Monday, Agnifilo countered that prosecutors’ 30-page bail memorandum shows the filter team did not do its job.
“In fact, the Government is in possession of privileged material and are actively using this material to detain the defendant,” Agnifilo wrote in asking for an evidentiary hearing.
Agnifilo and a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Combs, his defense team, and prosecutors are scheduled to return to court on Friday for the third round of bail arguments. He has offered his Miami mansion as collateral for a $50 million bail package that would include 24-hour-a-day monitoring and home confinement at the estate.
Two federal judges declined Combs’ previous bids for bail after prosecutors argued that the chance of his obstructing justice and the risk to the community were too high for him to remain free.
