Federal prosecutors late Friday said Sean “Diddy” Combs has tried to evade law enforcement monitoring to “corruptly influence witness testimony” while jailed on sex trafficking and prostitution charges, including using phone accounts belonging to “at least eight other inmates.”
In their opposition to Combs’ renewed bail motion, prosecutors say they’ve reviewed dozens of jail calls from the hip-hop mogul, including some in which he instructs the people he’s calling “to add other individuals via three-way call,” which is not authorized by the Bureau of Prisons.
Combs also “directs others” to pay inmates to use their personal access codes for jail phone calls, “including through payment processing apps and BOP commissary account deposits,” according to the 30-page filing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
“The defendant knows this is against BOP regulations: at the outset of each telephone call, the inmate is prompted to enter his PAC number, after which an automated recording announces: ‘Sharing of PAC numbers is against BOP policy and is subject to disciplinary action,’” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors say the violations are part of Combs’ effort to orchestrate a public relations campaign aimed at influencing people who may eventually serve on the jury in his criminal trial, including by “enlisting” his children to post videos on social media celebrating his birthday. And they say his own words prove his intent.
“The defendant (from within the [Metropolitan Detention Center]) then monitored the analytics—i.e., audience engagement—and explicitly discussed with his family how to ensure that the video had his desired effect on potential jury members in this case,” according to the filing. “Besides flagrantly violating the Court’s October 25, 2024 order prohibiting this kind of interference with a fair trial, the defendant’s own words make clear that his intent is to improperly influence the jury pool in this criminal proceeding.”
Prosecutors’ argument against Combs’ release provides more details about his contacts with two witnesses.
Combs’ renewed bail motion defends his contacts with a woman identified in court documents as “Witness-2” as “not in any way obstructive.” But prosecutors say Combs and the witness, who were bandmates, stopped talking to each other in March 2024, and Combs reinitiated contact in September 2024 after her name appeared in a lawsuit against him. The woman posted a statement on Instagram on Sept. 13.
Prosecutors publicly redacted the contents of notes they say prison investigators found in Combs’ cell “during a pre-planned nationwide sweep of BOP facilities.”
“The strong inference to be drawn from the defendant’s communications with Witness-2 and his personal notes is that the defendant paid Witness-2 after she posted her statement,” prosecutors wrote.
Combs is due in court next Friday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. E.T. before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan. His trial is scheduled for May, but prosecutors have said they may seek a superseding indictment. He’s currently charged with three counts: racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution. The racketeering charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, alleges a criminal enterprise that began “at least in or about 2009” and included sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
The public version of Combs’ renewed motion for bail, filed on Nov. 8, is partly redacted because it cites case discovery, including about alleged victims, that is covered by a protective order.
“The evidence makes clear that the government’s case is thin,” his lawyers wrote.
His proposed release conditions include a $50 million bond, Secured by his home and his mother’s home and cosigned by him, his mother, sister, oldest daughter’s mother, youngest daughters mother and three sons.
Prosecutors’ opposition on Friday also is partly redacted. It says Combs uses a third-party messaging service called ContactmeAsap “to obscure his communications” from jail.
“The defendant’s repeated circumvention of BOP regulations — starting almost immediately after arriving at MDC — speaks volumes about his ability to comply with any condition of release,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith Foster, Emily A. Johnson, Madison Reddick Smyser, M. Christy Slavik and Mitzi Steiner.
They say Combs uses the “unauthorized” communications “to continue his efforts to obstruct and subvert this criminal proceeding.”
“Examples of these efforts are plentiful,” prosecutors wrote, though some details are redacted from the public version of the filing.
The filing also describes Combs’ “relentless efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of his abuse who could provide powerful testimony against him.”
Prosecutors point out that his bail motion doesn’t meaningful address his risk of obstruction or the “significant acts of physical violence” that prosecutors highlighted at his bail hearing with the first judge assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, who rejected bail after U.S. Magistrate Robyn F. Tarnofsky did.
“While far from the only example, the video of the March 2016 incident at the Intercontinental Hotel, discussed at length in both previous hearings, puts the defendant’s dangerousness on full display,” prosecutors wrote, referring to the video of Combs beating Cassie that CNN published in May.
“Although defense counsel conceded that the incident was relevant to Judge Carter’s determination of dangerousness, the defendant fails to address it with respect to the present motion,” prosecutors wrote. “Instead, he repeats his prior characterization of the defendant’s relationship with Victim-1 as ‘complex’ and ‘at-times toxic,’ and pivots to the defendant’s philanthropic endeavors and family relationships in an effort to distract.”
Prosecutors said Combs’ motion “rehashes the same arguments rejected by those two judges with claims of ‘new evidence.’”
“But the defendant offers nothing new and material justifying a third bail hearing,” according to the filing. “In fact, the only truly ‘new’ relevant evidence shows that the defendant has continued to engage in a relentless course of obstructive conduct designed to subvert the integrity of these proceedings.”
Combs’ lawyers have until Nov. 20 to reply. His legal team includes Marc Agnifilo and Teny Rose Geragos as well as Anna Maria Estevao of Sher Tremonte LLP, who also is representing Combs in his civil cases, appellate specialist Alexandra A.E. Shapiro of Shapiro Arato Bach LLP and noted New York City criminal defense attorney Anthony L. Ricco.
Their last filing on Nov. 8 is a reply in support of their request that Judge Subramanian order prosecutors to disclose to the defense the names of alleged victims.
“This case is highly unusual in that dozens of financially-motivated individuals have made false claims of sexual assault—many of whom Mr. Combs has never even met or perhaps only met in passing at a party along with hundreds of others. Mr. Combs has no way of knowing whose claims the government is crediting,” according to the filing.
Subramanian already has rejected Combs’ lawyers’ request for a gag order against all lawyers in his case as well as alleged victims and counsel in civil cases because “the unprecedented relief that Combs seeks on this motion is unwarranted.”
“Combs’s authorities don’t support a gag order applicable not only to trial participants, but also to any alleged victim and their lawyer,” the judge wrote in his Nov. 8 order.
The judge earlier ordered counsel to comply with existing court rules regarding public statements, and he said in his new order that he’ll “take appropriate action for violations of the rules or this Court’s order.”
“The Court is open to other tailored proposals that will help ensure a fair trial,” Subramanian wrote. “As to the mounting civil cases against Combs, there are further steps that he can take, including seeking relief in particular cases if the parties or their lawyers have made prejudicial statements to the press, or moving to stay those cases pending the resolution of this one, just to give two examples.”
One civil plaintiff already has publicly identified herself after the judge assigned to her lawsuit declined to reconsider her decision that she can’t proceed anonymously.
The five-page order from U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the Southern District of New York cites her previous order from Oct. 30 that anonymity is an “exceptional remedy.”
“Significantly, Plaintiff’s motion to proceed anonymously was not supported by an affidavit from Plaintiff, a medical expert, or any other competent witness with actual knowledge bearing on the motion,” Vyskocil wrote. “Although Plaintiff’s counsel asserted in his motion papers that Plaintiff would risk physical and mental harm if she were to proceed in her own name, he offered no evidence to support his assertions.”
The judge said the plaintiff’s lawyer tried to justify the extraordinary reconsideration of the Oct. 30 order by citing “additional evidence” in a declaration he has not yet filed.
“Plaintiff’s counsel makes no effort to demonstrate that his motion meets the standard for reconsideration,” according to the Nov. 12 order. “Furthermore, Plaintiff’s counsel concedes that Plaintiff’s proposed declaration ‘may not alter the Court’s decision.’”
The plaintiff is represented by Tony Buzbee, the Texas-based attorney who announced Oct. 1 that he’s representing more than 120 people who will bring claims against Combs and other powerful people. He filed a new complaint on Tuesday that names the woman.
Buzbee began filing lawsuits on Oct. 14 in the Southern District of New York under Jane Doe and John Doe pseudonyms. He has at least 10 active cases with local counsel Antigone Curis of Merson Law PLLC in New York City.
The cases are with different judges, and all have ordered Buzbee and Curis to seek permission for their clients to proceed anonymously. Judge Vyskocil is the only judge so far to have rejected anonymity; most others are allowing the plaintiffs to proceed anonymously while they consider the full briefings.
However, a similar order rejecting anonymity has been in place since February in another lawsuit against Combs from a woman who accuses him and Harve Pierre, president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, of raping her in 2003 when she was 17.
U.S. District Judge Jessica G.L. Clarke’s 12-page order says while she “does not take Plaintiff’s concerns lightly, the Court cannot rely on generalized, uncorroborated claims that disclosure would harm Plaintiff to justify her anonymity.”
The woman is represented by the same attorneys at Wigdor LLP in New York who represent his former girlfriend Cassie. Cassie is identified as “Victim-1” in Combs’ criminal indictment.
The woman does not have to identify herself until after Clarke rules on pending dismissal motions from the defense, and if she dismisses the case identification will be moot.
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A lawyer for a photographer suing Megan Thee Stallion for lost wages and hostile work environment harassment is facing possible sanctions after he didn’t show up to a pre-trial conference in Manhattan federal court.
Ronald L. Zambrano of Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods not to sanction in a five-page declaration filed this week that says he believed in “good faith” he could attend the hearing via telephone.
Zambrano said he didn’t receive court notice about the Nov. 6 conference but learned of it from defense counsel on Oct. 24. He also learned of a new case number since the case transferred from the Central District of California in Los Angeles to the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
“I then checked the PACER activity with that case number and found a flurry of ECF (electronic case filing) activity unbeknownst to anyone at my firm,” wrote Zambrano, a licensed lawyer in California since 2008.
Zambrano said he saw an order scheduling the Nov. 6 hearing and didn’t believe he needed to attend in person.
“In retrospect, I should not have assumed that I could have participated in this conference remotely by either telephone or video conference because the word ‘in-person’ was not included in the Court’s order,” Zambrano wrote in his declaration.
Zambrano said his mistake “was compounded by the wide-spread adaptation of remote participation in court hearings in both federal and state courts in California,” though federal courts in California haven’t allowed broad use of remote hearings since late 2023.
Zambrano represents Emilio Garcia, who accuses Megan and her management company, Jay Z’s Roc Nation, of owing him lost wages for misclassifying him as a contract employee instead of a full-time employee. He also accuses Megan, legal name Megan Pete, of hostile work environment harassment and says she disparaged him after he complained about her having sex with another woman him front him while they were in a car.
Megan’s attorneys at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, said Garcia is a “con artist” who is “manipulating the judicial system to act as his publicist and bullhorn” through a “factually and legally frivolous” lawsuit that’s “plagued with falsehoods, misrepresentations of fact, and outlandish claims.”
They said in a May 29 filing that Garcia never witnessed Megan having sex with another woman in a car, and that Zambrano only included the allegation to bolster the “media firestorm” that followed.
Zambrano initially filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, but Megan’s lawyers moved it to federal court in LA, then persuaded U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera to transfer it to New York because Garcia’s contract specifies disputes have jurisdiction in New York.
Judge Woods filed an order to show cause regarding the possible sanctions after Zambrano missed the Nov. 6 pretrial conference.
On Friday, Megan’s lawyers filed a four-page declaration with lawyers for Roc Nation that says Zambrano “has failed to prosecute Plaintiff’s case diligently.” They asked Judge Woods to sanction him $6,000 to cover the attorney fees they’re charging Megan and Roc Nation for attending last week’s conference. They also asked for him to dismiss the case without prejudice and allowing him to refile with local counsel in New York.
“Mr. Zambrano has failed to prosecute Plaintiff’s case diligently. Dismissal is appropriate,” they wrote.
Zambrano is not licensed to practice in New York, nor is his law parter Neama Rahmani, so each must have a licensed New York lawyer sponsor their pro hac vice appearance. Megan’s and Roc Nation’s lawyers did so shortly after the case was transferred from Los Angeles to New York in October, but Zambrano and Rahmani have not done so, and Zambrano said in a Nov. 5 email, “I still haven’t found local counsel.”
Without local counsel, Zambrano can’t lawfully appear in New York federal court, but he told Judge Woods in his declaration on Tuesday that he tried to appear via phone on Nov. 6 and plans to appear in-person on Nov. 18. Megan’s lawyers also said he never asked them what happened on Nov. 6, despite his claim otherwise.
“As of November 12, 2024, Mr. Zambrano has not declared that he secured New York Counsel, or that he resolved his technical issues,” they wrote.
They also pointed out that when Zambrano told the court he wasn’t receiving filing notices, he “was directed by the Court to contact the Court’s ECF Help Desk to resolve these issues and apparently did not.”
“Moreover, Mr. Zambrano represents Plaintiff. It is his obligation to prosecute this case diligently, including by remaining abreast of developments and scheduled court appearances, and regularly checking the docket,” according to the filing. “Nor has he taken the appropriate steps to advance the Action since it was transferred to this Court, including by failing to apply pro hac vice or securing local counsel, and failing to obtain leave of Court for additional time to address these outstanding issues.”
Megan is represented by Alex B. Spiro, Joanna E. Menillo, Mari F. Henderson and Julian T. Schoen of Quinn Emanuel. Roc Nation is represented by Jordan W. Siev and Michael Kleinmann of Reed Smith.
A filing on Oct. 30 explaining the case to Judge Woods says, “To date, no settlement discussions have occurred.”
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Rapper Durk “Lil Durk” Banks has two new felony charges in his federal murder-for-hire case under a superseding indictment announced in the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
Banks, 32, has been in jail since Oct. 17 on a complaint charging him with one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death. The 19-page grand jury indictment filed last week charges him with additional counts of conspiracy and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.
It also charges his five alleged coconspirators: Kavon London Grant, 28, of Atlanta; Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33, of Chicago; Keith Jones, 33, of Gary, Indiana; David Brian Lindsey, 33, of Addison, Illinois; and Asa Houston, 36, of Chicago. Each was charged in the first indictment filed Oct. 17.
Banks is accused of hiring hitmen to murder a rival rapper to avenge the Nov. 6, 2020, murder of his friend and fellow rapper Dayvon “King Von” Bennett in Atlanta. Prosecutors say the conspiracy resulted in the rival’s relative being shot to death at a gas station near the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles in August 2022.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles issued this press release on Friday:
Chicago Rapper Lil Durk Charged in Superseding Indictment Alleging Murder-for-Hire Plot to Kill Rival Near Beverly Center Mall in 2022
LOS ANGELES – A Grammy Award-winning Chicago rapper has been charged in a superseding federal grand jury indictment alleging he conspired with others to murder a rival rapper, resulting in the shooting death of the rival’s relative that occurred at a gas station near the Beverly Center shopping mall in Los Angeles in August 2022, the Justice Department announced today.
Durk Banks, 32, a.k.a. “Lil Durk,” “Blood,” and “Mustafa Abdul Malak,” of Chicago, is charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and one count of using, carrying, and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.
The indictment adds two felony charges against Banks, who previously was charged via criminal complaint in this case.
The four-count superseding indictment, returned late Thursday, adds Banks as the lead defendant to a previous indictment returned October 17 and charging the following defendants in connection with the August 2022 murder:
Kavon London Grant, 28, a.k.a. “Cuz” and “Vonnie,” of Atlanta;
Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33, a.k.a. “DeDe,” of Chicago;
Keith Jones, 33, a.k.a. “Flacka,” of Gary, Indiana;
David Brian Lindsey, 33, a.k.a. “Browneyez,” of Addison, Illinois; and
Asa Houston, 36, a.k.a. “Boogie,” of Chicago.
Banks was arrested on October 17 near Miami International Airport after law enforcement learned that Banks had been booked on multiple international flights. A federal magistrate judge in Miami has ordered him jailed without bond until he is transferred to Los Angeles for arraignment.
All six defendants – none of whom has yet entered a plea to the charges – are expected to be arraigned in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
According to the superseding indictment, in 2010, Banks formed an organization called Only the Family (OTF), which, among other things, produced and sold hip hop music from artists primarily from the Chicago area. OTF also acted as an association-in-fact of individuals who engaged in violence, including murder and assault, at Banks’ direction and to maintain their status in OTF.
Banks feuded with a victim, identified in court documents as “T.B.” The feud stemmed from a November 6, 2020, murder in which an associate of T.B. shot and killed an OTF rapper named Dayvon Bennett, a.k.a. “King Von.” Bennett and Banks were close friends.
In response to Bennett’s murder, Banks allegedly put a bounty on T.B.’s life.
On August 19, 2022, several OTF members and associates used two vehicles and worked in tandem to track, stalk, and attempt to murder T.B. for hours, culminating in a shooting at a gasoline station located near the Beverly Center shopping mall. The co-conspirators used multiple guns, including a machine gun, and fired at least 18 rounds at T.B.’s vehicle, striking and killing a victim identified in court documents as “S.R.,” who was T.B.’s family member who had been traveling with T.B.
Banks allegedly ordered T.B.’s murder and the hitmen used money from Banks and OTF-related finances to carry out the hit. Bank and flight records show that an OTF member and close associate of Banks coordinated and paid for five co-conspirators to travel from Chicago to California on the day before the murder. Around the time the one-way flights were purchased, Banks told the OTF associate booking the flights, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit [sic] me.”
The same day the hitmen traveled from Chicago to California, Banks also traveled to California in a private jet with another conspirator, Kavon London Grant, 28, a.k.a. “Cuz” and “Vonnie.” Later that day, Grant allegedly purchased ski masks for the shooters to use to commit the murder and paid – using a credit card in Banks’ name – for the other co-conspirators’ hotel room.
The other five defendants are in federal custody in Illinois after their initial court appearances in Chicago. They remain charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and one count of using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death. Jones faces an additional count of possession of a machine gun.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
If convicted, all the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Daniel H. Weiner of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section, and Gregory W. Staples of the Orange County Office are prosecuting this case.
I will continue following this case, including by attending the defendants’ arraignments whenever they get to Los Angeles.
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