Prosecutors Claim Diddy Tried To Influence Witnesses From Prison: Here Is The Latest Sean Combs News

Sean “Diddy” Combs has attempted to contact witnesses and influence public opinion to sway potential jurors for his upcoming trial on sex trafficking and prostitution charges, including “enlisting” his children to post videos on social media, prosecutors allege in a new court filing. (Here is a complete list of the allegations against Combs.)

In a filing opposing Combs’ request to be released on bail, prosecutors claim Combs has attempted to “corruptly influence witness testimony” by asking his family members to reach out to victims and potential witnesses and create “narratives” to affect their opinion, while also asking his children to post a video to social media in celebration of his birthday and ensuring the video had “his desired effect on potential jury members in this case.”

November 12In “The Downfall of Diddy: Inside the Freak-Offs,” Ray J claims high-profile celebrities are “reaching out to victims” and offering them money in exchange for avoiding any public exposure, and aspiring singer-songwriter Tanea Wallace described her experience at a 2018 party where she said she saw minors “dressed up like Harajuku Barbies, red lipstick, looking like real sexy.”

November 8Combs’ attorneys again requested the mogul be released on bail with a $50 million bond with a laundry list of new conditions, including home detention in Miami or New York City, security lockdown and no internet access, which is scheduled to be heard at a hearing on Nov. 22.

November 4In a video posted by his son, Combs spoke to his children on the phone on his 55th birthday Monday and said, “I can’t wait to see y’all. I just want to say that I’m proud of y’all, especially the girls. I mean, all y’all just for being strong.”

November 3Comb’s lawyers sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asking he place all potential witnesses under a gag order until a federal trial scheduled for May, claiming a “deluge of improper pretrial publicity that is undermining Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial.” (The request comes after a friend of Comb’s late girlfriend Kim Porter spoke outside a courthouse in Manhattan, saying he’d testified before a grand jury and has footage of Combs raping and sexually assaulting several people, including minors).

October 31Ty Stiklorius, John Legend’s manager, wrote in a New York Times piece that she herself experienced a “terrifying situation” in which she says she was locked in a bedroom while attending a party hosted by Combs in St. Barts in the late 1990s and “managed to talk her way out” of what she assumed was an abnormal experience, but later realized “what happened that night was no aberration—it was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry.”

Ty Stiklorius, John Legend’s manager, wrote in a New York Times piece that she herself experienced a “terrifying situation” in which she says she was locked in a bedroom while attending a party hosted by Combs in St. Barts in the late 1990s and “managed to talk her way out” of what she assumed was an abnormal experience, but later realized “what happened that night was no aberration—it was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry.”

October 28Federal authorities said they’d carried out an “interagency operation” at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where Combs is awaiting trial, but did not provide specific details about what was done inside the facility, which has been the target of rampant criticism from the Combs team and the location of several crimes in recent months, including a murder-for-hire plot and the stabbing deaths of two inmates.

October 25In a letter submitted to the court Friday, Combs’ attorneys requested a gag order be implemented for all federal officials involved in his case, specifically citing a New York Post article that quotes a “federal law enforcement source who is involved in the investigation” as proof the Department of Homeland Security is purposefully interfering with Combs’ right to a fair trial (in October, Combs’ legal team claimed DHS leaked an incriminating video of Combs to CNN, which the agency denied). A judge later called the quotes in the article “plainly improper” but rejected the gag order request.