Allegations that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs tampered with witnesses contribute to bail denial

Final week, on the day he was sued for not less than the ninth time in lower than a 12 months, Sean Combs was decided to get a message by to one in every of his protégées, prosecutors in his federal prison case stated.

The music mogul, who was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices, is alleged to have referred to as or texted Kalenna Harper 58 instances in 4 days.

The outreach began, prosecutors stated, on the day that one other of his protégées, Dawn Richard, who was Harper’s bandmate within the since-disbanded group Diddy — Soiled Cash, sued Combs, alleging that he groped and threatened her and at instances didn’t pay her whereas he oversaw her profession.

And the communication stopped, they stated, after Harper took to social media to disclaim that she had witnessed a few of the issues Richard’s complaint alleges. 

The allegation of communication between Combs and Harper is one in every of a number of examples of “witness tampering” and obstruction of justice prosecutors laid out for a choose Tuesday in New York as they argued that Combs was too harmful, violent and dismissive of the federal case in opposition to him to be allowed to return residence earlier than his trial.

“This incident is only one approach of making clear that this defendant has the continuing means to maintain witnesses, even witnesses who might need been round for very distant-in-time abuse, in his pocket and at his disposal,” one of many prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Emily Johnson, instructed a choose Tuesday.

Combs’ attorneys had requested that he be launched on bail and stated he may publish a $50 million bond. However U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Robyn Tarnofsky denied their request Tuesday, saying, partly, that even with a bond, she couldn’t “fairly guarantee his return to court docket or the security of the neighborhood, or a scarcity of witness tampering.”

U.S. District Decide Andrew Carter Jr. upheld that call Wednesday after an attraction from Combs’ legal professional.

Tuesday’s listening to supplied the primary public acknowledgment that authorities consider Combs has tried to silence individuals who may converse out in opposition to him. Prosecutors stated that since he was sued in November by his former longtime girlfriend, who alleged years of bodily and sexual abuse, he has contacted not solely Harper, but additionally witnesses who acquired grand jury subpoenas and not less than one particular person he’s alleged to have harmed.

An legal professional for Combs stated he couldn’t have obstructed justice, partly as a result of he didn’t know he was the topic of a prison investigation.

Johnson, the prosecutor, instructed the choose: “The defendant’s energy offers him a novel means to affect and intimidate witnesses and victims. Witnesses we’ve interviewed have universally expressed their worry of the defendant. His affect makes it extraordinarily tough to persuade those that they are going to be protected from his actions.” 

Prosecutors stated Combs started contacting Harper shortly after Richard alleged in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10 that Combs assaulted, groped and imprisoned her. In an announcement, an legal professional for Combs referred to as Richard’s lawsuit “an try and rewrite historical past” and accused her of “making an attempt to get a pay day.” Richard says in her lawsuit that Harper was current throughout a few of these interactions and that they each witnessed Combs’ abuse of his former longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer referred to as Cassie who was signed to his file label, Unhealthy Boy.

Harper stated in an announcement Friday, partly, that “most of the allegations and incidents described on this go well with will not be consultant of my experiences, and a few don’t align with my very own reality.”

Johnson stated that from the date of Richard’s submitting to the day after Harper’s assertion, Combs and Harper “had 128 whole cellphone contacts,” with Combs calling or texting Harper 58 instances in 4 days.

“There hasn’t been any contact since Sept. 14,” Johnson stated. 

Makes an attempt to succeed in Harper for remark at cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses listed for her and thru her social media accounts had been unsuccessful.

One in every of Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, instructed the choose Tuesday that Harper’s eventual assertion was “the furthest factor from witness obstruction I can consider,” saying it mirrored simply “two witnesses having divergent recollections of comparable occasions.”

He added that he didn’t see how Combs may have obstructed justice when Richard had not been recognized as a witness within the federal case.

In court docket Tuesday, prosecutors additionally accused Combs of twice calling an unnamed particular person whom he financially helps three days after Ventura filed her lawsuit. Ventura sued Combs in November, alleging he bodily abused her throughout their yearslong relationship, raped her on one event when she tried to depart him and compelled her to take part in drug-fueled orgies with male prostitutes that he referred to as “freak offs” whereas Combs watched and masturbated and generally recorded them. They settled the lawsuit a day after it was filed with out disclosing the phrases and with Combs denying any wrongdoing.

Combs, Johnson stated, “requested for the sufferer’s help and friendship and makes an attempt to persuade the sufferer that she had willingly engaged in intercourse acts with him.”

In one of many calls prosecutors referred to in court docket Tuesday, they stated Combs will be heard telling the alleged sufferer that “if she continues to be on his facet and supply help and friendship that she doesn’t have to fret about anything,” which, Johnson stated, “is only a thinly veiled reference to persevering with that monetary help.”

Johnson stated each calls had been recorded.

Johnson additionally stated that since Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs and his alleged co-conspirators had contacted alleged victims and witnesses — together with individuals who had acquired grand jury subpoenas from the federal government in his case. Johnson stated the “contact has occurred previous to dates of testimony or conferences with the federal government.” And, in a single case, it allegedly concerned an individual whom Combs had not spoken to in years, Johnson stated.

Prosecutors say Combs and his alleged co-conspirators would attempt to keep away from detection after they reached out to alleged victims and witnesses, together with utilizing intermediaries to succeed in out to individuals.

“It’s methods like this that make this obstruction extremely tough to detect,” Johnson stated Tuesday in making her case for Combs to stay jailed till his trial. “And from our investigation, we all know what’s occurred on a few of these calls. We all know that not less than one function is to unfold false narratives and to get witnesses on his facet and by telling them — generally gaslighting them — into making them suppose that one thing occurred that didn’t occur.”

Combs reached out a number of instances to not less than two witnesses who acquired grand jury subpoenas this summer time, Johnson stated. She stated the witnesses who acquired subpoenas have firsthand data of Combs’ habits as charged within the indictment.

Agnifilo argued that Combs couldn’t have obstructed justice as a result of he was unaware he was the topic of a prison investigation in November. “So I don’t see any of this stuff as obstruction of justice,” Agnifilo stated.

Combs has been indicted on prices of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He has pleaded not responsible.

The indictment alleges that Combs and members of his employees operated a prison enterprise that participated in intercourse trafficking and different crimes, primarily to facilitate and canopy up “freak offs” — outlined within the indictment as “extremely orchestrated performances of sexual exercise” in resorts and at different places that “occurred commonly, generally lasted a number of days, and sometimes concerned a number of business intercourse employees.” Throughout such occasions, in keeping with the indictment, girls had been plied with medication to maintain them “obedient and compliant” as they had been pressured to have intercourse with male prostitutes.