The legal team of Sean “Diddy” Combs claimed in a new filing that Department of Homeland Security agents undermined the Bad Boy Records founder for seven months leading up to his bombshell indictment on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Di Combs’ legal team is calling on a judge to take Courtesy: CNN’s May acquisition of footage of Combs attacking Ventura inside the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles, with a towel around his waist, sparked outrage against the music star.
Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, defense lawyers, claimed that the government was the only possible source of the damning information.
CNN received the videotape for only one reason: to permanently damage Sean Combs’s reputation and eliminate any chance of him successfully defending himself against these allegations, they wrote.
In November of last year, Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs, but the two eventually reached a settlement a day later.
Combs is being accused of covering up alleged crimes by abusing women and intimidating witnesses while operating his record label as a “criminal enterprise” for more than a decade.
He has denied each and every charge. In the lead-up to his high-profile trial, Combs’s attorneys are also fighting to free him from federal detention.
He has denied each and every charge. In the lead-up to his high-profile trial, Combs’s attorneys are also fighting to free him from federal detention.
The legal team for Combs warned that it was not pointing the finger at the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office but rather at DHS for the alleged leaks.
His attorneys argued that federal authorities also illegally disseminated grand jury information, including the 2016 videotape, and provided news outlets with false and prejudicial statements.
In the new filing, Combs’ lawyers also said that DHS agents “engaged in a particularly brutal and public search of Mr. Combs homes,” including putting two of his sons in handcuffs in front of the press.
In March, the raids on Combs’ Miami and Los Angeles mansions attracted a lot of attention from the media and uncovered a wealth of evidence against the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer.
