Diddy’s lawyers have claimed his sex trafficking case may have to be dismissed due to “procedural errors” during a recent raid on the music mogul’s cell.
Attorney Marc Agnifilo accused prosecutors of a “complete institutional failure” that they say could have potentially jeopardized the case, during an emergency court hearing in New York on Tuesday.
The defense team claimed the rapper’s constitutional rights were violated last month when federal investigators seized 19 pages of his notes during a sweep of his cell and shared them with prosecutors.
Agnifilo claimed that the privileged material contained Diddy’s handwritten notes to his legal team about defense strategies for his upcoming trial.
The court heard that the feds also seized Diddy’s “To Do” list, which included telling a family member to “find dirt” on two alleged victims, as well as pages on which he wrote “inspirational” quotes for himself.
Agnifilo called the previously planned raid a “pretext” for a prison investigator to target Diddy.
The possible remedy could include “dismissal of the indictment,” he said, or recusal of the prosecution team.
“We don’t know enough to say what the reasonable remedy is,” he told the court.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, pictured in a September court sketch, was present during an emergency court hearing in his sex trafficking case on Tuesday.
The music mogul’s lawyers claim prosecutors have potentially jeopardized the case after seizing privileged material from his cell last month.
Judge Arun Subramanian ordered the prosecution to delete all its copies of the documents for the time being.
The emergency hearing came after the defense filed new court documents revealing that they only learned that prosecutors were in possession of privileged material from Friday’s Oct. 28 raid.
Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, has been languishing in jail while awaiting trial for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation into prostitution.
He was arrested on September 17 and is expected to stand trial next May. He has denied all charges.
Agnifilo told the court that defense attorneys are investigating the incident to determine how serious the matter is.
He also said the court needed to review surveillance footage from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Diddy is being held, to determine what happened during the search.
Judge Subramanian ordered the Bureau of Prisons to preserve the images.
Diddy, 55, was not shackled during his court appearance Tuesday, the first time he was granted those freedoms, after a judge approved a request by his lawyers to remove them.
The disgraced rap mogul remains jailed at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (pictured) after being repeatedly denied bail.
He seemed relaxed and smiling as he entered through a side door, joking with his lawyers and hugging them.
Diddy seemed to enjoy working in the courtroom, craning his neck back to see who was in the public gallery and pointing out a court sketch artist.
In a dramatic moment, Agnifilo held up the files in question and handed one to the judge to review.
Among the material prosecutors had access to were notes Diddy took after one of his attorneys suggested a potential expert witness, a retired doctor.
Agnifilo said, “I can’t think of anything else at the heart of attorney-client privilege.”
Prosecutor Mary Slavik told the court they had acted “completely appropriately” with respect to the documents.
He said the documents were handed over to a ‘Filter Team’ – a separate group of prosecutors – who reviewed them to see if they were privileged.
Slavik said the notes in question included Diddy’s “To Do” list, mentions of family members and financial matters, and “inspirational quotes.”
The rapper has been accused of organizing ‘Freak Offs’, described as ‘elaborate and produced sexual performances’ arranged and directed by Combs.
Prosecutors say he tried to influence potential jurors at his trial by having seven of his children post a video commemorating his Nov. 4 birthday.
One note talked about how he wanted to “find dirt” on two different victims and Diddy wrote to a family member about “finding everything” on a specific victim, the court was told.
Justice Subramanian said the problem with the notes was not their labeling but the “context in which they were taken”.
He said the court would resolve the legal privilege issue at a later date and that the next court appearance, Diddy’s bail hearing, would take place on Friday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Diddy’s attorneys requested that he be allowed to appear unshackled at all future court appearances.
The request was filed by attorney Marc Agnifilo ahead of Diddy’s scheduled court appearance in Manhattan.
It comes after court documents filed Friday revealed that Diddy has been accused of obstructing his sex trafficking case from behind bars by paying witnesses and recruiting his own children in a “public relations campaign.”
Prosecutors say the disgraced hip hop mogul has “demonstrated an uncanny ability to get others to do his bidding” even though he is locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
They claim he tried to influence potential jurors at his trial by having seven of his children post a video commemorating his birthday on November 4.
Diddy allegedly bribed a witness after calling and texting her a staggering 128 times over four days from his cell to persuade her to support him.
Prosecutors also claimed he used other inmates’ phone accounts to make calls to people he cannot talk to and to “avoid tracking by law enforcement.”‘.
Dozens of people, some of whom were minors at the time, have sued Diddy in civil courts for a series of crimes, which he also denies.