Attorneys for Sean 'Diddy' Combs have made a shocking attempt to silence a grand jury witness who has made bombshell claims about the rapper's so-called 'freak-off' parties.
via: Rolling Stone
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys have ramped up their efforts to have a federal judge issue an immediate widespread gag order in the Bad Boy mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering case after an alleged grand jury witness claimed to possess incriminating sexual videos of Combs.
Combs’ attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos submitted a motion to United States District Judge Arun Subramanian on Sunday night, urging the court to “immediately restrain extrajudicial statements by potential witnesses and their counsel” while the court weighs both parties’ arguments. The 55-year-old’s defense team first asked for a gag order in late October, pointing to at least a dozen new civil lawsuits filed against Combs after his September arrest.
His lawyers claimed that a lack of restrictions would “substantially interfere with Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial,” which is set for May 2025. Combs pleaded not guilty to the three charges against him.
Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York opposed Combs’ motion, claiming not only was the request broad and overreaching, but would potentially silence accusers who were not part of the criminal case. Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who is representing Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a Jane Doe client, also submitted a letter to the court protesting the request, saying it would “inappropriately silence victims who are proactively seeking justice through the civil justice system.” While the court hasn’t made a ruling, Combs’ team re-upped their request after Florida-based attorney Ariel Mitchell and her client Courtney Burgess went on a press tour last week. They claimed that Burgess possessed videos of Combs allegedly sexually assaulting celebrities, including minors, and was testifying in front of a grand jury. (SDNY prosecutors previously noted their investigation was ongoing, and that a superseding indictment was “very much a possibility.”) Combs’ attorneys vehemently deny the existence of such videos and are requesting for the gag order to be granted and implemented immediately.
“These stories have spread rapidly through the media and created the impression that such videos exist, which is false, and that the government is actually crediting his sensational claims, which is profoundly prejudicial,” Agnifilo and Geragos wrote. “By treating these ridiculous claims as anything but a pathetic extortion scheme, the government is fueling the fire of online conspiracy theories and making it impossible for Mr. Combs to have a fair trial.”
In the meantime, Mitchell and Burgess have gone on news programs to discuss the alleged videos. Burgess describes himself as a music industry veteran and a former acquaintance of Kim Porter, Combs’ ex-partner who died in 2018. (Combs’ attorneys claim that Combs has never met Burgess.) Burgess claims that it was Porter who gave him flash drives containing the explicit material. He also claimed he was involved in the release of Porter’s “memoir,” which contained numerous typos, factual inaccuracies and incredulous claims about Combs. Porter’s family members and friends have insisted the memoir is fake and is filled with “fabricated bullshit and offensive pages,” according to Porter’s ex-partner Al B. Sure!.
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