Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ defense team made a desperate move to suppress evidence of his so-called ‘freak-offs’ parties.
Defense attorneys for the 55-year-old rapper filed a slew of motions in the Southern District of New York on Sunday claiming that federal agents made ‘false statements and omitted exculpatory evidence’ in their application for the search warrants to raid his homes and examine his Internet history.
The lawyers claim this was ‘intentional, or at the very least reckless’ as they asked a federal judge suppress all the evidence obtained from the searches, which they say violated Diddy’s Fourth Amendment rights with an overly-broad warrant and ‘presented a grossly distorted picture of the facts.’
In fact, the defense attorneys claim that the feds have evidence that would prove at least one of his alleged victims willingly participated in the ‘freak-offs.’
Federal agents then made intentionally misleading claims in their probable cause document to arrest the rapper for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution on September 17, the lawyers argue.
‘The probable cause statements were intentionally misleading,’ the attorneys wrote.
‘But it worked – the government got its warrants, leaked damaging information and then executed its military-style raids at Combs’ residences.
‘Through this duplicity, the government obtained evidence – including multiple electronic devices with an enormous amount of information about his entire life – and an enormous and unfair tactical advantage.’
Attorneys representing disgraced rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs filed a motion to suppress evidence federal agents obtained from his homes and Internet history
The defense team also say the federal government hid the alleged victims’ financial motivations for making their damning accusations.
Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants in early morning raids on Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March, in what officials declared is a sex-trafficking investigation.
Combs was at one of his homes in Miami at the time. His two sons, at his home in Los Angeles, were handcuffed during the search, Combs’ attorneys said at the time.
It was unclear for months afterward what the raids uncovered, but finally in September, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams released his indictment – revealing confiscated unmarked AR-15s, ammunition, as well as 1,000 bottles of baby oil and other lubricant.
‘The indictment alleges that between at least 2008 and the present, Combs abused, threatened and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,’ Williams said.
‘The indictment alleges that Combs used and exploited women and other people for years, and in a variety of ways. As alleged, Combs used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers, some of whom transported, or caused to be transported, over state lines.’
They also revealed evidence had been gathered of Combs’ long-rumored sex parties — which he referred to as ‘freak offs’ — during their raids on his Los Angeles and Miami homes, finding, ‘electronic devices that contain images and videos of the freak offs, with multiple victims.’
Diddy liked to plan and control the ‘sex performances,’ the feds alleged, that sometimes lasted ‘days at a time,’ and involved sex workers and a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy, and GHB, ‘which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant.”
Diddy’s Holmby Hills residence in Beverly Hills was the subject of a March Homeland Security raid
Police and Homeland Security officers are seen at Diddy’s waterfront mansion in Miami during a bi-coastal raid
Law enforcement were removing boxes of evidence and a laptop from Diddy’s Star Island mansion in Miami Beach
Diddy has been languishing in jail ever since, and is now scheduled to go to trial in May. He has denied all of the charges against him.
But as he languished in prison, federal investigators seized 19 pages of his notes during a sweep of his cell and shared them with prosecutors.
Defense Attorney Marc Agnifilo then accused prosecutors of a ‘complete institutional failure’ that they say could have potentially jeopardized the case, during an emergency court hearing.
He claimed the material contained Diddy’s handwritten privileged notes to his legal team concerning defense strategies for his upcoming trial.
The court heard feds also seized Diddy’s ‘Things to Do’ list, which included telling a family member to ‘find dirt’ on two alleged victims, as well as pages in which he wrote ‘inspirational’ quotes for himself.
Agnifilo called the pre-planned sweep a ‘pretext’ for a prison investigator to target Diddy.
Judge Arun Subramanian has since ordered that the prosecution delete all of its copies of the papers.
Diddy is charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution
Federal investigators said they obtained evidence from Diddy’s freak-off parties showing multiple alleged victims
The new move to suppress all the evidence obtained from the raids comes just days after one of his attorneys, Anthony Ricco, stepped down from his legal team.
In a motion for withdraw of counsel filed in New York on Thursday, Ricco said ‘under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs’.
The notice added that discussions had been had with lead counsel Agnifilo and Ricco before the motion was filed.
The attorney said that he would be providing no details to support the application, adding that government prosecutors had been notified and didn’t take a stance.
He noted that him standing down would not result in a delay to the current schedule.
