Sean “Diddy” Combs blew kisses to relatives who packed a Manhattan courtroom Friday to hear his latest pitch for why he should be freed on bail pending trial on charges of leading a depraved criminal empire for more than a decade — including by forcing women to take part in days-long drugged-up sex shows.
Lawyers for Combs, 55, asked Judge Arun Subramanian to release him on $50 million bond while he prepares for his May 2025 trial on federal racketeering and sex-trafficking charges — and floated putting him up until then in a three-bedroom Upper East Side apartment with 24/7 security.
But the feds shot back that the disgraced music mogul could not be trusted to comply with any release conditions, saying he’s already tried to “obstruct” their ongoing probe by contacting potential witnesses from his Brooklyn lockup.
“The defendant, simply put, cannot be trusted,” said prosecutor Christine Slavik during the 90-minute hearing in Manhattan federal court. “He’s left no doubt that he cannot comply with conditions.”
Subramanian did not rule on the bail request Friday, but said he’d do his best to issue a decision by the end of next week.
Combs’ lawyers did not say exactly where on the Upper East Side they proposed that Combs stay pending his trial.
The embattled hip-hop kingpin entered the courtroom through a side door in a khaki jail-issued outfit, and smiled and waved toward his family members in the second row of the gallery, including his twin 17-year-old daughters, Jesse and D’Lila Combs. He blew more kisses and waved again at his family on his way out.
Combs is charged with racketeering and sex trafficking stemming from allegations that he led his label Bad Boy Records as a “criminal enterprise” for more than a decade, repeatedly physically abusing women in his orbit and bullying witnesses to his alleged crimes into silence.
He’s being held without bail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after failing in three previous efforts to convince the courts to release him while his case is pending. He was granted a fourth chance at arguing in favor of being released after the case was assigned to Subramanian, who is planning to oversee next year’s trial.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office have argued that Combs poses an “extreme danger to the community” and have repeatedly accused him of tampering with witnesses.
Raids on his homes in Los Angeles and Miami turned up troves of evidence — including bags of narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant that Combs allegedly planned to use during what he called “Freak Offs,” marathon sex sessions in which he would lure women into having sex with male prostitutes while he watched, the feds say.
Combs has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers have argued that the sexual encounters mentioned in the indictment were all consensual.
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