(NEW YORK) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is expected to learn Wednesday afternoon whether he will continue to be held without bail on charges including sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
The music mogul’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, appealed Judge Robyn Tarnofsky’s Tuesday decision to detain the 54-year-old pending trial. The appeal hearing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
In a letter to the court ahead of the Wednesday hearing, Agnifilo wrote that Combs is “eminently trustworthy” and should be released on a $50 million bond.
The bond — which would be secured by his Miami home worth $48 million — would be co-signed by Combs, his mother, his sister, his three adult sons and the mothers of two of his daughters. The defense also proposed restricted travel, restrictions on female visitors and home detention among other conditions of release.
Agnifilo took issue with prosecution comparisons of Combs to sex offenders like R. Kelly, Keith Raniere and Ghislaine Maxwell, all of whom were jailed for a time at the same place — Metropolitan Detention Center-Brooklyn — where Diddy is currently being held. He said the charges, while serious, are “eminently defensible” and pledged Combs would show up to court to defend himself.
“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded or run from a challenge in his life. He will not start now,” Agnifilo’s letter said.
The attorney previously said Combs is trying to sell his private plane. Agnifilo said he took possession of his client’s passport and those of five of his relatives.
Combs is alleged to have run an “enterprise that he engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and other crimes,” according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” from 2008 to the present. The allegations mirror 11 civil complaints filed against him since 2023.
Explaining the decision to deny Combs bail on Tuesday, Tarnofsky said, “My concern is that this is a crime that happens behind closed doors.”
Federal prosecutors argued Combs poses an ongoing threat to the community.
“The defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice,” prosecutors said. “During the course of the charged conduct, the defendant has attempted to bribe security staff and threatened and interfered with witnesses to his criminal conduct.”
“He has already tried to obstruct the Government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of events.”
“There are simply no conditions that would ensure that the defendant’s efforts to obstruct and tamper with witnesses will stop,” prosecutors said.
He also argued that when Combs took two trips — to a graduation party for one of his children and a whitewater rafting trip — “we told the government where he was going.”
“Trust has to be earned and we have earned it,” he told the judge.
Upon his arrival to jail on Tuesday, Combs had a psychiatric evaluation administered by Bureau of Prisons physiologists, according to sources familiar with his incarceration. The evaluation is meant to determine whether he needed to be placed in the Special Housing Unit or on suicide watch.
Suicide watch requires around-the-clock care and hourly checks from corrections officers. Special Housing is an isolated part of the jail where other high-profile MDC inmates, like El Chapo, were kept.
It’s unclear whether Diddy, who has a history of abusing opioids, sources have said, is on suicide watch or in special housing, but he is not in with the general population at MDC, the sources told ABC News.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Luke Barr, Josh Margolin and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
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