New York (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ lawyers tried for a third time Friday to persuade a judge to let the hiphop mogul out of jail while he awaits his sex trafficking trial, but a decision won’t come until next week as prosecutors warned of his "concerted effort" from behind bars to disrupt the case.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he’ll rule promptly on Combs’ bail request after the defense and prosecution file letters by noon Monday fleshing out some of the arguments they made during at a two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court.
Combs’ lawyers pitched having him await trial under around-the-clock surveillance either at his mansion on an island near Miami Beach or — after the judge scoffed at that location — at an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Their $50 million bail proposal, secured by his Florida home, essentially amounts to keeping Combs on house arrest instead of in custody at the troubled Brooklyn federal jail where he’s been held for 67 days since his September arrest.
Under their plan, Combs’ lawyers said he’ll be under near-total restrictions on his ability to see or contact anyone but them. But prosecutors argued that no bail conditions can mitigate Combs’ “risk of obstruction and dangerousness to others.”
Combs has routinely flouted jail rules while locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, prosecutors said, accusing him of attempting to interfere with witnesses and taint the jury pool.
“Really, this amounts to the defendant paying his way out of custody,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik told Subramanian.
Defense lawyer Anthony Ricco countered that the prosecution’s portrayal of Combs as "a lawless person who doesn’t follow instructions” or “an out-ofcontrol individual who has to be detained” is inaccurate.
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