CNN
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Legal professionals for Sean “Diddy” Combs need prosecutors to reveal the names of his accusers, telling the choose overseeing his intercourse trafficking case that the authorities is “unfairly” forcing the music producer “to play a guessing recreation” because the protection prepares for trial.
Combs’ newest request comes amid a surge of latest civil accusers who’ve come ahead in lawsuits after he was arrested and indicted final month on three felony fees.
In a letter to Decide Arun Subramanian on Tuesday, Combs’ attorneys wrote “the federal government has claimed that there are ‘a number of’ victims but has not recognized any.” They wrote that the duty of figuring out the individuals on the heart of the federal government’s case is sophisticated by a “slew of baseless allegations” from “determined” and “opportunistic” plaintiffs.
The US Legal professional’s workplace declined to remark.
Combs, who’s being held in federal custody in Brooklyn as he awaits trial, has pleaded not responsible to fees of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to interact in prostitution.
Federal prosecutors have accused Combs of orchestrating a “felony enterprise” via his enterprise empire that engaged in intercourse trafficking, compelled labor, kidnapping and a long time of bodily abuse in opposition to ladies, amongst different allegations. They allege that he didn’t act alone. His trial is about to start in Could 2025.
Within the month since Combs was arrested, eight further civil lawsuits have been filed in opposition to him with allegations of sexual assault. One authorized professional advised CNN that as prosecutors proceed their investigation, the deluge of lawsuits can doubtlessly function a roadmap of types for the federal government.
“If civil lawsuits with new victims are filed, that’s positively one avenue that they may discover out about them — if the federal government didn’t already find out about these victims,” lawyer Jennie Wang VonCannon, a former federal prosecutor who has no affiliation with Combs or any of his accusers, stated.
“The sheer variety of (accusers) will increase the possibilities – by rather a lot – of there being conduct that the federal government didn’t find out about or hasn’t charged but, and that would tip the size in the event that they’re interested by superseding so as to add further fees or so as to add different defendants who had been a part of the alleged conspiracy,” Wang VonCannon, who has beforehand tried human trafficking and RICO instances for the US Legal professional’s workplace and is at present a associate on the regulation agency Crowell & Moring, added.
Since Combs’ arrest, prosecutors have indicated that their investigation was ongoing, with US Legal professional for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams encouraging victims to “come ahead and to do it shortly” on the day the indictment in opposition to the musician was unsealed.
Then earlier this month at a standing listening to, Assistant US Legal professional Emily Johnson stated {that a} superseding indictment might have an effect on the size of trial – that means further fees or defendants may very well be added.
A supply acquainted with elements of the federal investigation stated that new accusers and witnesses have met with federal brokers since Combs’ arrest.
Federal prosecutors focus on the arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The Division of Homeland Safety and SDNY declined to touch upon the present standing of the investigation or whether or not new fees would in reality be filed.
Six of the new lawsuits got here this week by way of Houston-based lawyer Tony Buzbee, who stated in a press conference earlier this month that he was representing at the very least 120 new Combs accusers.
Since November 2023, at the very least 18 civil lawsuits have been filed in opposition to Combs. The primary lawsuit, filed by his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, was settled someday after it was filed. The others stay energetic.
Combs had beforehand denied all wrongdoing alleged within the numerous lawsuits. After CNN revealed a 2016 lodge surveillance footage that reveals Combs dragging and kicking his then-girlfriend Ventura, he apologized in a video shared on social media.
Combs’ protection is attempting to dam that video from being introduced into proof in his trial. In a filing last week, his lawyer accused the federal government of leaking proof, together with the surveillance video, to the media, however offered no proof of these claims.
The six new accusers who came forward this week every made separate claims of sexual assault that allegedly befell between 1995 and 2021. The nameless accusers, all represented by Buzbee and his co-counsel San Diego-based lawyer Andrew Van Arsdale, are each feminine and male. One accuser claims he was 16 on the time he was allegedly assaulted at considered one of Combs’ notorious White Events within the Hamptons in 1998.
Combs’ attorneys didn’t reply to particular allegations within the newest lawsuits, however denied the accusations, telling CNN that Combs maintains his innocence.
“Mr. Combs has by no means sexually assaulted anybody — grownup or minor, man or lady,” his attorneys stated in an announcement this week.
One other accuser, who filed her lawsuit post-indictment, claims that her alleged sexual assault was filmed with out her consent. And one other alleged sufferer, who also filed after Combs’ arrest, stated in her swimsuit that she was drugged, sexually assaulted and impregnated with claims as current as 2024.
Wang VonCannon stated it’s potential Combs was indicted earlier than the investigation was full as a result of prosecutors might imagine he’s harmful and had been tampering with witnesses, as they stated when he was denied bail. Combs’ workforce pushed again on the federal government’s assertion that he had obstructed witnesses in their appeal for Combs’ detention.
“The federal government’s feedback throughout Combs’ bail listening to about his hazard to the neighborhood appear to be half and parcel about why they did this indictment so shortly,” Wang VonCannon stated. “They needed to get him off the streets as a result of they thought of him a hazard to the neighborhood. You could possibly see a world by which that they had what they wanted for what was charged within the indictment. However given the scope of the indictment, even because it stands, it seems to be half of a bigger sample of exercise that may implicate presumably different crimes.”
Extra accusers really feel emboldened to come back ahead with Combs behind bars, based on two sources acquainted with the investigation who spoke with CNN.
Months earlier than Combs’ arrest, sources told CNN that almost all of the plaintiffs who had filed civil fits in opposition to Combs at that time had been interviewed by federal investigators, as they had been prepping witnesses to testify in entrance of the grand jury.
An accuser of Combs, who has already met with federal investigators, additionally advised CNN that she has direct data of extra alleged victims which have additionally met with federal brokers since Combs’ arrest. This accuser stated that whereas extra people are coming ahead, there may be nonetheless a worry of retaliation, given Combs’ longtime stature as one of the vital highly effective rappers and profitable music moguls of all time.
“He nonetheless has some maintain,” this accuser advised CNN.
CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this story.