Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs say prosecutors are “unfairly” withholding the names of the alleged victims in his racketeering and sex trafficking case now underway in federal court in Manhattan. In a letter to the court filed late Tuesday, his lawyers say federal prosecutors should be forced to cough up the identities immediately so Combs can get to work on his defense ahead of his criminal trial now scheduled to begin May 5.
“The government is forcing [Combs], unfairly, to play a guessing a game,” the four-page letter signed by Combs’ attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, and obtained by Rolling Stone, reads. The lawyers claim the indictment unsealed against Combs last month is lacking in “particularity” to the point that it’s impossible for Combs to determine who the other unidentified alleged victims are — at least beyond the main victim, widely understood to be Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
“Without clarity from the government, Mr. Combs has no way of knowing which allegations the government is relying on for purposes of the Indictment,” the letter reads. The attorneys say Combs’ position is “made all the more challenging by the onslaught of baseless allegations that desperate plaintiffs are lodging at him — for the most part anonymously — in civil suits designed to exact a payoff from Mr. Combs and others.”
The letter goes on to argue that “given the anticipated amount of discovery and the expected time required for its production, Mr. Combs will be unable to adduce the identities of the purported victims from the discovery without the assistance of the government.” It says Combs “also anticipates that the discovery will contain voluminous evidence of consensual sexual activity — making it all the more difficult for Mr. Combs to ascertain which of his prior sexual partners now claim, years later, that they felt coerced.”
In their letter to the court, Combs’ lawyers said the government “opposes disclosure of alleged victims’ names at this stage.” A pre-trial hearing in the case is set for Dec. 18.
Prosecutors in the case did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
“It’s really, really early right now to make this demand, but Combs’ lawyers are trying to put pressure on prosecutors. It’s what good defense lawyers do,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani tells Rolling Stone. “The government is going to say this is premature, that discovery is still ongoing, that they’re still reviewing the evidence, and that Combs can’t make this demand seven months before trial.”
In their letter, Combs’ lawyers lament the “torrent of allegations by unidentified complainants” in more than a dozen lawsuits filed since Ventura first sued Combs for sexual assault and sex trafficking last November. The lawyers say the six most recent lawsuits filed Monday involve “outrageous and deeply prejudicial allegations including violent sexual assault and sexual abuse of minors.” They claim they need to know the names of the alleged accusers in the criminal case in order to determine if there’s any overlap with the civil cases, which would affect what they can say publicly ahead of trial.
In his criminal indictment, Combs is accused of having “abused, threatened, and coerced” multiple unidentified “women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires.” The filing stated that Combs engaged in a “persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” including “verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual” abuse. Prosecutors were notably vague in the indictment as to the dates and details regarding individuals other than Ventura, who wasn’t specifically named.
Speaking to Rolling Stone last month, Elizabeth Geddes, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who delivered the closing arguments in the government’s successful prosecution of R. Kelly, says it was “a little surprising” the Combs indictment didn’t “more specifically describe other victims.” She says one of the reasons SDNY prosecutors likely chose to proceed with a slimmed down, so-called “Glecier-format” RICO conspiracy — named after a famous case, United States v. Glecier — was because it specifically offered the benefit of affording more protection to witnesses. “By proceeding that way, they don’t have to list out every single different predicate racketeering act that they’re planning to prove up at trial. They can just list broad categories of crimes [without] alleging the particular instances, or the particular victims,” says Geddes.
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 15 years in prison.