Sean “Diddy” Combs is accused by federal authorities of multiple sex crimes

Sean Combs, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo. Photo: Elizabeth Williams via AP

Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail again on Wednesday, Sept. 18, a day after a federal judge in Manhattan remanded him to await trial at a jail in Brooklyn.

The rapper was initially denied bail during his arraignment in Manhattan’s federal court on Tuesday, Sept. 17, and remanded to jail. A different judge denied his request for bail on Wednesday.

Combs’ legal team promptly appealed the judge’s decision to deny bail, and returned to court the following afternoon. In a Sept. 17 letter to the judge, Combs’ lawyers described conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn as “horrific” and “not fit for pre-trial detention.”

His defense proposed in court Wednesday that Combs live at home alone in Florida with a 24/7 security team that would monitor a pre-approved guest list. He offered to give up any access to his cell phone or internet, and in the words of his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, “do nothing but prepare for his trial.”

But Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. said that “there is no condition or combination of conditions to ensure he will not obstruct justice or tamper with witnesses.”

Combs, dressed in the same black shirt and gray striped sweatpants he wore during his first bail hearing on Tuesday, dipped his head, looking down at the defense table when he heard the judge’s decision.

In a 14-page indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York Tuesday, Combs was charged with one count each of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Calling Combs “a serial abuser,” Assistant District Attorney Emily A. Johnson said in court Tuesday that the rapper had demonstrated a “pattern of abuse” and for years been “undeterred” by law enforcement. “He is an extreme danger to the community,” she added.

Sean Combs in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 20, 2023.Shareif Ziyadat/Getty

Prosecutors allege in the indictment, obtained by PEOPLE, that Combs allegedly coerced women to participate in “freak offs,” described in the indictment as “highly orchestrated performances,” which prosecutors claim he “arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”

Those secret recordings were then allegedly used as “collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims,” threatening their “careers and livelihoods, including if they resisted participating in Freak Offs,” per the indictment.

Marc Agnifilo, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, right.Elizabeth Williams via AP

The indictment alleges that women were sometimes injured during the freak offs. It alleges that Combs “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair,” causing injuries “that took days or weeks to heal.”

Johnson told the judge Tuesday that the alleged “freak offs” were “core” to the case, claiming that the singer “has the propensity to become violent at the slightest provocation.”

She said prosecutors had spoken with more than 50 witnesses, many of whom had witnessed the alleged violence, and that law enforcement had gathered more than 90 cell phones, laptops and iCloud accounts, along with  additional thumb drives and other technological devices which supported the charges in the indictment.

During March raids of his homes in Florida and California, law enforcement allegedly recovered three AR15s – disassembled and with the serial numbers filed off – Johnson said Tuesday.

In the indictment, prosecutors further allege that they found more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, which they say was typically used in the freak offs.

R. Kelly at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on June 6, 2019.E. JASON WAMBSGANS/AFP via Getty

In court Tuesday, Johnson likened the rapper’s case to that of R&B artist R. Kelly, as well as financier Jeffrey Epstein and cult leader Keith Raniere.

Agnifilo – who previously represented Raniere at his 2019 federal trial in Brooklyn – called Combs’ case “night and day different,” telling the judge that unlike the other three men, Combs is not accused of sexually abusing minors.

He further argued that the sexual interactions had been between consenting adults and that the singer should not be shamed for his desires.

“Is it sex trafficking?” Agnifilo asked Tuesday. “Not if everyone wants to be there.”

“We are not all better off if the federal government comes into our bedroom,” he added, then acknowledging the singer sitting in court nearby with two U.S. Marshals standing at attention behind him, he continued: “They are coming into this man’s bedroom and making judgements.”

On Tuesday Agnifilo proposed a $50 million bond, secured by the rapper’s $48 million residence, the mortgage of which his lawyer said he had paid off in anticipation of the indictment.

Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky, who initially denied the rapper’s bail Tuesday, noted his alleged “substance abuse and what seems like anger issues,” telling Combs that she was sending him to jail.

“I don’t know that you can trust yourself” not to harm people, she said.

Leaving court Tuesday, Combs turned to his family seated in the third row and touched his hand to his heart, as a pair of U.S. Marshals escorted him out.