Sean “Diddy” Combs learned Wednesday he will be held without bail on charges including sex trafficking by force and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Sean “Diddy” Combs will continue to be held without bail, a judge ruled Wednesday evening, on charges including sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
Judge Andrew Carter denied bail and ordered Combs remanded into custody, where his attorney said he would be held in the special housing unit of Metropolitan Detention Center-Brooklyn.
Carter said the government had provided sufficient evidence Combs is a danger to the community and a danger to obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses. Carter said the defense’s proposed bail package was “insufficient.”
Combs did not appear to react but had his eyes cast downward while seated at the defense table.
Before making his ruling, Carter had appeared skeptical of the defense’s claim that a 2016 video, in which Combs was seen kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura, was the product of a ten-year loving relationship dissolving because of her jealousy over his infidelity.
“What’s love got to do with that?” Carter asked.
The music mogul’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, conceded that it was “a hard video to watch”, but maintained that it “doesn’t mean he should be incarcerated.”
Prosecutor Emily Johnson, in pushing for Combs to remain in custody, accused him of a “longstanding pattern of abuse”, and said his victims have an “extreme fear” of Combs because of his influence in the entertainment industry.
Johnson said Combs called a victim in November 2023 — after Ventura’s civil lawsuit was filed — seeking to maintain this victim’s public support.
According to prosecutors, the victim told Combs that when she read Ventura’s lawsuit, “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma.” Combs allegedly tried to convince her she willingly participated in the acts, but the woman pushed back, saying that was “not how she saw things”, Johnson said.
