Prosecutors cite Diddy's freak offs in opposing his latest bail try: He's no 'ordinary John'
Combs is "far from being an ordinary and casual consumer of commercial sex," they argue, lambasting the rap mogul and his baby oil-soaked history of freak offs in an 11-page court filing opposing his latest bail effort.
Combs hopes to be set free from a notorious Brooklyn jail pending his October 3 sentencing. He argues that last month's split verdict found him guilty of being, at most, a "John" who paid for male escorts he didn't even sleep with.
Instead, his lawyers argue, trial testimony consistently described Combs sitting in the corner of a series of luxury hotel suites in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles, watching, masturbating, and recording as his girlfriends had sex with muscular strippers and porn stars.
But if Combs is a John, he's a very, very bad one, prosecutors say in opposing bail in a filing made public early Friday.
"The defendant transported individuals for the purpose of prostitution on hundreds of occasions over the course of decades," wrote the five remaining members of the Manhattan-based prosecution team — minus lead attorney Maurene Comey.
(Comey, who also prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, is the daughter of former FBI director and longtime Trump nemesis James Comey. She was fired by the Department of Justice two weeks after the Combs verdict.)
Far from being a "mere John," the remaining team wrote, Combs "plied Cassie Ventura and Jane (as well as male commercial sex workers) with drugs to ensure their continued participation in the days-long freak offs."
R&B artist Ventura spent four days on the stand describing Combs' violence and her own regret and humiliation in the decade ending in 2018. The second girlfriend, who testified as Jane Doe, told a similar tale from dating Combs in 2021 to 2024.
Combs "used violence against both Ms. Ventura and Jane in connection with freak offs, and employed a small army of personal staff to ensure that his every need was met during freak offs," the prosecutors' filing tells US District Judge Arun Subramanian..
"The defendant's actions surely distinguish him from an ordinary 'John.'"
In his own filing earlier this week, Combs had asked Subramanian to let him live at his Miami mansion on $50 million bail in the two months between now and sentencing.
His lawyers argued that the stakes are lower now, because he has been cleared of the most serious charges against him.
On July 2, the jury in Combs' six-week Manhattan trial rejected prosecutors' allegations that he sex-trafficked two girlfriends.
The jury also rejected a racketeering charge that alleged he ran Combs Global, his multimillion-dollar media, entertainment, and lifestyle empire, as a criminal enterprise.
Combs was found guilty only of the least serious counts he had faced. The jury convicted on two violations of the federal Mann Act, finding that Combs caused the two girlfriends and several male escorts to be transported across state lines for purposes of commercial sex acts.
The felony Mann Act convictions are flawed and should be tossed out, Combs argues.
Combs "lacked a commercial motive and did not intend for paid escorts to have sex with him," his lawyers argued Wednesday night in a legal filing signed by defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro.
Instead, Combs was creating "amateur porn," filming as the male escorts had sex with longtime girlfriend Shapiro argued.
Combs was "primarily a bystander" to the encounters, Shapiro argued. "Paying people to film them in sexual performances is protected by the First Amendment," she also argued.
This is Combs' fifth attempt at bail since his September arrest.
In denying the previous bail attempts, Subramanian said that by law, Combs' felony conviction requires that he remain in jail pending sentencing.
In previous bail denials, Subramanian and two other judges cited Combs' admitted domestic violence against his girlfriends, including in the months before his September arrest, when he knew he was under investigation.
They also cited prosecution allegations that Combs possessed illegal drugs when he was arrested and had tried to obstruct the trial by reaching out to witnesses from jail before it started, claims the defense has denied.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek a sentence of five years or more on the two Mann Act convictions.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UBS to pay $300 million to resolve US mortgage securities cases
ZURICH (Reuters) -UBS on Monday said it will pay $300 million to settle outstanding obligations related to the misselling of mortgage-linked investments by Credit Suisse in the United States. On August 1, Credit Suisse Securities entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve all of Credit Suisse's outstanding consumer relief obligations under the 2017 settlement for its residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) business, the bank said. Under the 2017 agreement, Credit Suisse agreed to pay $5.7 billion to settle with U.S authorities over claims it misled investors in residential mortgage-backed securities it sold in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The decline in mortgage payments reduced the value of the assets, leading to huge losses for investors. "With this agreement, UBS has resolved another of Credit Suisse's legacy issues, in line with its intention to resolve legacy matters at pace in a fair and balanced way, and in the best interest of all its stakeholders," UBS said. Credit Suisse agreed to pay $495 million in 2022 to settle one case brought by the New Jersey Attorney General that alleged the bank had "misled investors and engaged in fraud or deceit in connection with the offer and sale of RMBS." Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sean Combs' 'Victim-3' Skipped Trial, Now Supports Bail As Defense Tries Again To Get Diddy Out Before Sentencing: 'He Has Not Been Violent For Many Years'
Donald Trump may be hedging on Sean Combs getting a pardon, but the ex-girlfriend and AWOL government witness who skipped the sex-trafficking trial of the convicted Bad Boy Records founder now thinks Diddy's changed, poses no threat, and should be out on a $50 million bond ASAP. 'Our relationship, like many, was not always perfect, we experienced ups and downs, and mistakes were made but he was willing to acknowledge his mistakes and make better decisions in the future,' declares the self revealing Virginia Huynh a.k.a. 'Gina' a.k.a. Victim-3 in a letter included with correspondence from Combs' defense team filed today in federal court. More from Deadline John Oliver Urges End To U.S. Complicity In Israel's Blockade: "Gaza Is Being Starved By Israel" Trump Goes Looney Over "Sleazebag" Charlamagne Tha God's Epstein & GOP Coup Remarks On Fox News Senate Confirms Jeanine Pirro To Serve As U.S. Attorney For D.C. Cited in the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York's indictment of Combs on racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution as one of the accused primary victims, Victim-3 was scheduled to testify for the feds along with Victim-1 Cassie Ventura and Victim-2 'Jane' in the May 12 starting trial in Manhattan. However, just days before the jury trial in front of Judge Arun Subramanian was beginning, Victim-3 was nowhere to be found and wasn't responding to prosecutors' attempts to contact her or her lawyer. Risking throwing the whole matter into chaos, the former Combs girlfriend's absence was noted by attorneys and witnesses alike repeatedly over the more than a month of trial. 'Gina, though she will not be testifying, is a main character in this trial,' prosecutor Christy Slavik stated at one point of the abuse and assaults Victim-3 allegedly suffered. Identifying herself publicly now at a pivotal time for Combs, who in early July was only found guilty of two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and is set to be sentenced on October 3, Huynh started seeing the 'I Need A Girl' performer in 2014. Huynh and Combs' relationship caused tensions with both Ventura (who dated him from 2007 to 2018, with Combs alleging raping her after they broke up) and 'Jane' (who dated Diddy from 2021 to 2024) as sometimes harrowing testimony of drug driven and filmed 'freak-off' sex sessions with male escorts, horrible violence by admitted domestic abuser Combs and more laid bare. Still that alleged maltreatment and exploitation seems cast aside in Huynh's letter Sunday. 'Over the years that followed he made visible efforts to become a better person and to address the harm he had caused,' she says of the much accused and much sued Combs, advocating for him being sprung from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he had been in custody since his September 2024 arrest, on a $50 million bond. 'By the time our relationship ended, he embodied an energy of love, patience and gentleness that was markedly different from his past behavior. To my knowledge, he has not been violent for many years, and he has been committed to being a father first.' In a direct blow to prosecutors' POV and to Judge Subramanian's own repeated opinion in denying previous bond requests by Combs' lawyers, Huynh adds: 'I am writing because I do not view Mr. Combs as a danger to me or to the community.' At the end of the one-page letter she takes a fairly large leap of faith: 'Allowing him to be at home will also support the healing process for all involved.' Without direct mention of Victim-3, the once Maurene Comey-led prosecution (Trump's DOJ fired her suddenly late last month) has already put their difference of opinion and facts in the docket. 'The trial record is replete with evidence of the defendant's acts of violence towards others,' the feds said in a July 31 letter to Judge Subramanian pushing back on the Marc Agnifilo- and Teny Gerago-led defense's latest move to get their client out. Again, in correspondence filed before Huynh's letter Sunday, the SDNY also counter the notion that Combs has changed in recent years. 'More recently, the defendant brutally attacked Jane in June 2024, also in the context of a Freak Off,' they pinpoint of Combs, an abuse episode that would be months after Ventura's quickly settled lawsuit ($20 million) against him and months after federal officials had raided homes of his on the East and West Coast. 'As Jane testified at trial, after she initiated a physical confrontation with the defendant, she repeatedly locked herself in rooms in her home to protect herself from the defendant.' The defense today waved off prosecutors allegations about 'Gina,' the reported June 2024 attack on 'Jane' and where Combs himself is at now. 'If any of this was true,' the now eight-lawyer deep defense says in a nuanced but also heavily redacted eight page letter of the abuse and freak-offs that allegedly rained down on Victim-3, 'the government would have called this individual, but without credible evidence the Court should not consider this to continue to detain Combs.' Reiterating the preemptive acknowledgement they used at trial, Agnifilo, Geragos, Alexandra Shapiro, Jason D. Driscoll, Nicole Westmoreland, Xavier Donaldson, Brian Steel and Anna Estevao make sure to affirm Combs has been on the straight and narrow since his arrest and detainment. 'At trial, the defense admitted violence in connection with decades-old violence, and an incident of assault for which Combs was first attacked repeatedly in June of 2024,' they said Sunday. 'But Combs has not participated in any violence for the past 11-months, demonstrating to the Court that even in the conditions he is currently subject to, where there is 'unchecked violence' surrounding him, he will not commit assault,' the defense went on to say. 'He is sober, has been committed to bettering himself with therapy (as established in the trial record) and is committed to doing everything possible to support himself and his family.' The high profile defense goes on to exclaim: 'That Sean Combs has been free of violence of every sort is important to understanding that man he is today. He has shown nothing but respect for the criminal justice system and everyone in it, from his first minute in jail until now. There is no reason to believe he will be violent or threatening to anyone in any manner.' The U.S. Attorney's office for the SDNY did not respond to Deadline's request for comment Sunday on the defense's latest letter and the correspondence from Huynh. With just two months to go before the 20-year stint facing Combs is actually sentenced (he won't get anywhere near that), it seems almost ludicrous for him to be let out at this point, especially with time served clearly to be part of what he gets. Almost, ludicrous but less so because the defense are already asking for a new trial and plan to formally appeal as soon as Judge Subramanian hands down the sentence in October. till, having rejected bail requests for almost a year and as recently as when Combs was convicted on July 2, Judge Subramanian has said he will entertain the notion one more time — whether today's letters have any impact beyond public opinion is the wild card — unless Trump really does pardon the 'half-innocent' Combs beforehand. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More
Digital Trends
an hour ago
- Digital Trends
FBI warns of a particular scam involving QR codes
Scammers are increasingly exploiting QR codes to trick people into revealing financial information or installing malicious software on their devices. The FBI has recently issued a warning about a particular type of scam involving QR codes on packages delivered to people who didn't order them. Recommended Videos The scammers are clearly playing on our curious nature, with the appearance of an innocent-looking QR code likely to tempt at least some people to scan it to find out more about the mystery package they've just received. But this could take you on a journey where you end up being tricked into handing over personal details such as financial information, or downloading malware that could pull data from your phone. 'While this scam is not as widespread as other fraud schemes, the public should be aware of this criminal activity,' the FBI said. The agency said the activity is a variation of the so-called 'brushing scam' where online sellers send you unordered items so that it can use your name to post fake reviews to boost the product's rating. 'In a traditional brushing scam, online vendors send merchandise to an unsolicited recipient and then use the recipient's information to post a positive review of the product,' the FBI explained, adding that in this latest variation, 'scam actors have incorporated the use of QR codes on packages to facilitate financial fraud activities.' The FBI is imploring people to beware of delivered packages that they didn't order, and to avoid scanning QR codes from unknown origins. The agency's warning comes at a time when QR codes are being increasingly used in scams besides those involving unsolicited packages. QR codes are being used increasingly by criminals, mainly because of their growing presence in everyday life. It means scammers are even sticking fake codes over legitimate ones, so you need to be on your guard when you hold your phone over one, especially when you're out and about. The New York Department of Transportation, for example, recently alerted drivers to a scam where criminals were sticking QR codes on parking meters. The code directed anyone who scanned it to a third-party webpage asking for credit card information. These days, most phone cameras automatically recognize QR codes and, unless you've turned off the setting, show you the web address that you'll land on if you tap it to proceed. So even with codes that you think you can trust, take a moment to read that address before going ahead. As for QR codes stuck on packages that you didn't order, just ignore them entirely.
