NEW YORK (Court TV) — The judge in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking case ordered prosecutors to “get rid of” copies of notes that were found in Combs’ jail cell, barring the government from using them as evidence in his upcoming bail hearing.
Lawyers for the music mogul requested a last-minute hearing Tuesday to find out how federal prosecutors obtained the handwritten notes and if they breached Combs’ attorney-client privilege by viewing them. The notes in question: 11 pages from a pad marked “things to do” that prosecutors say a jail staffer photographed in Combs’ cell and shared with the government.
Depicted in this courtroom sketch, Sean “Diddy” Combs, left, sits at the defense table with one of his attorneys, Teny Garagos, during his bail hearing, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Judge Arun Subramanian told prosecutors to “eliminate” references to the notes from their arguments in a bail hearing scheduled for Friday so that the hearing can proceed while the attorneys litigate the bigger issue of whether the notes are admissible in other proceedings — chiefly, a pending grand jury investigation of Combs for possible witness tampering and obstruction in his sex trafficking case.
Combs pleaded not guilty in September to the charges for which he is currently awaiting trial: racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and interstate transportation to engage in prostitution. He is accused of using his celebrity status and the resources of his business empire to coerce women into participating in drug-fueled orgies with male sex workers known as “freak-offs.”
Combs appeared in court Tuesday without leg shackles for the first time per the judge’s order. He wore a big smile on his face as he entered the courtroom and hugged each of his attorneys. He smiled at the gallery, waved at a courtroom sketch artist, and chatted animatedly with his attorneys before the hearing began.
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Federal prosecutors said in court documents that a Bureau of Prisons investigator found the notes during a facility-wide “sweep” for contraband at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in late October. The government said the sweep – which was planned before Combs arrived at the facility – included interviews with inmates and searches of their bunks for contraband, which is how the investigator came across Combs’ notes. Before looking at the notes, prosecutors said they sent them to a “filter team” within the U.S. Attorney’s office to review them for privileged content, and then the filter team sent redacted portions of the notes to the trial attorneys pursuant to a “covert” grand jury subpoena.
According to prosecutors, among Combs’ benign “notes to self” on finances and family birthdays were notes about “getting dirt” on witnesses and alleged victims in his sex trafficking case. Prosecutors cited the instances in their written arguments opposing Combs’ third bail request – the first time Combs’ attorneys say they learned of the sweep or the photographed notes.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, called the MDC sweep a “pretext” for a raid targeting Combs. The judge granted the defense’s request for an order to preserve MDC surveillance footage of the raid as part of the “fact-finding” into what led up to the seizure of Combs’ notes.
Agnifilo said all of Combs’ notes are privileged because they arose from attorney-client discussions about trial strategy that were not intended for prosecutors.
“We’re studying this man’s life,” Agnifilo said. “This is not a single day, single event case. This is an indictment of this man’s life.”
An FBI truck is parked outside the Metropolitan Detention Center during an interagency operation, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in the Brooklyn Borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Agnifilo argued the legal significance of the notes should have been evident to prosecutors not only from their content but because the notepad itself was labeled “legal” in handwritten letters. To make his point, Agnifilo presented the notes to the judge among a stack of yellow legal pads and paper-filled envelopes, asking him to take note of handwritten “legal” heading.
“If it’s in this legal file, it’s discussed with his lawyers,” Agnifilo said.
Federal prosecutor Christy Slavik said in Tuesday’s hearing that simply writing the word “legal” on a pad doesn’t make it privileged material. She argued the government “did the right thing” by sending the material to be reviewed by the filter team out of respect for Combs’ attorney-client privilege even though evidence suggests Combs is trying to interfere with his sex trafficking case with alleged attempts to contact potential witnesses and accusers.
Slavik confirmed that the BOP investigator who searched and photographed the notes is the same investigator assigned to monitor his calls and emails in the grand jury investigation. She insisted that no one from the prosecution directed the investigator to search for or collect items from Combs during the BOP sweep.
When the judge pressed Slavik to explain why her team did not immediately hand over the notes to the defense, Slavik leaned on the grand jury investigation. “We have no obligation to alert them to an investigation of an ongoing criminal matter,” she said.
Judge Subramanian did not rule on whether the notes fall under attorney-client privilege. He said the government’s filter team can hold onto the photographs of Combs’ notes until he rules on whether they are privileged communications or fair game for the government’s grand jury investigation.
