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Inside Diddy's Contentious Pretrial Hearing

Diddy appeared in a pretrial hearing that was, at times, contentious. We were also present in the courtroom, witnessing the proceedings firsthand. Here are some key takeaways.

Getty

Getty

It looks like it will be a busy spring for Sean “Diddy” Combs, as his trial date is now set for May 5 of next year, following a hearing on Thursday. 

The short hearing, in front of Judge Arun Subramanian, found the Bad Boy mogul brought into the courtroom dressed in a wrinkled tan button-down shirt and matching pants. Diddy—who is being charged with racketeering and sex trafficking—appeared in good spirits, smiling and blowing kisses at his family members in the building, which included his mother Janice, his sons Christian and Justin, and his twin daughters ​​Jessie and D’Lila.

Judge Subramanian quickly set the trial date, with no objections from either side. Prosecutor Emily Johnson estimated that it would take the government about three weeks to present their case, while Diddy’s lead attorney Marc Agnifilo estimated his side would take a week for their defense.

Most of the hearing centered around how quickly and in what order Diddy’s legal team would receive the information found on the 96 electronic devices the government took in their searches of Diddy’s homes back in March.

Johnson said that the government had managed to extract material from most of those devices, but some have proven more difficult to impenetrate. Prosecutors had been unable so far to get past security on some of the newer hard drives, phones, and laptops, she explained; while on the other hand, they also didn’t have the technology to extract information from some older tablets. In addition, a few of the devices were damaged.She noted that the government also had in its possession Diddy’s phone from when he was arrested last month, as well as three electronic devices that were in his hotel room at the time.

A contentious moment came towards the end of the hearing, when Agnifilo raised an issue he originally addressed in a memo Wednesday night—that he believes Homeland Security agents have been leaking material about his client, including the Cassie Ventura video, to the press.

“The concern is that the agents have been leaking grand jury information,” he said, emphasizing that it has “continued throughout the investigation.”

“The only type of relief I can ask for would be a gag order,” he said.

That led Johnson to retort that, while she wouldn’t talk to the press, she had some issues with things Agnifilo had said in a recent TMZ interview, where he painted his client as the victim of a government that has been “no friend historically to the successful Black man.”“He baselessly accused the government of engaging in a racist prosecution,” Johnson said.

Those statements, Johnson said, may put the entire proceeding at risk, as they were picked up by a number of other media outlets and risk prejudicing potential jurors. She also said Agnifilo raising the issue of the Cassie video was a backhanded attempt to try to remove it from the upcoming trial.

“The motion is a means to exclude a damning piece of evidence, disguised as press statements,” she said, a reference to the fact that Agnfilo’s motion largely focuses on several news articles that quote anonymous Homeland Security agents.

Agnifilo, having received assurances that the government wouldn’t talk to the press, agreed to abide by the rules on his end as well.

“I don’t think we’ll have any other issues,” he said.Watching in the courtroom was attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Diddy accuser Thalia Graves in a civil suit. She told Complex she was relieved that no issues about bail were raised—his lawyers are saving that for an appeals court, where attorney Alexandra Shapiro filed a motion on Tuesday.

“The best words for my clients are that he remains in custody,” she said. “Those are the magic words.”

Diddy is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. 

 

Author: Editors Desk

Source: Complex

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