A federal judge denied Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request for a two-month delay in his sex-trafficking case.
Judge Arun Subramanian chose to keep the planned start date in place, leaving Combs’ legal team roughly three weeks to complete the rapper’s defense against allegations of sex-trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping and more.
Diddy’s Friday hearing was attended by his son, Justin Combs, and his mom, Janice Combs.
Janice has appeared at most of the music mogul’s court appearances as he awaits his May 5 trial.
Diddy’s legal team requested a 2-month adjournment, or pause, in the sex-trafficking case in a letter filed with the court on Wednesday.
The defense claimed Combs’ lawyers have not had “the necessary time to prepare” following the government’s filing of the Third Superseding Indictment. The latest version of the indictment was brought against Diddy on April 3 and the rapper was arraigned on April 14.
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The legal team zeroed in on a new charge against the rapper that could land him behind bars for a minimum of 15 years. Diddy’s lawyers did not begin receiving the evidence relating to the latest charges, which they say was in the government’s possession before the updated indictment was filed, until April 4 and have not yet received everything they need ahead of the May 5 trial start date. The team claimed to still be waiting on 3,500 evidentiary materials along with a witness list and other exhibits relating to the 15-year mandatory minimum charge.
“Under these circumstances, with discovery seemingly incomplete on a 15-year mandatory minimum count, we cannot, in good conscience, go to trial on the scheduled date,” Agnifilo wrote. “This is a problem that the government has created, yet it opposes our reasonable request …”
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During Diddy’s arraignment on Monday, his lawyers argued that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has been withholding upwards of 200,000 documents related to the case.
Attorney Teny Geragos acknowledged that her “ask is unusual” in requesting the government to turn over information from the witness, but that there were emails and texts not being provided in full to the defense. Prosecutor Christine Slavik objected to an adjournment and accused Diddy’s team of “gamesmanship” for requesting 200,000 documents from the government regarding witness communications.
Slavik claimed the witness’ attorney provided documents to Diddy’s team pertaining to a keyword search, to which the judge suggested prosecutors turn over full docs via thumb drive or face a possible adjournment or subpoena.
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Diddy was hit with two new charges in an April 3 superseding indictment as federal prosecutors claimed the rapper engaged in sex-trafficking a female victim as recently as 2024. He was accused of transferring the woman, referred to as “Victim 2,” along with sex workers across state lines to engage in prostitution between 2021 and 2024.
When the “Last Night” rapper appeared in court on March 14, he pleaded not guilty to the government’s first version of a superseding indictment. That version lengthened the timeline of his alleged sex-trafficking and racketeering behavior and added two more victims.
The prosecution also accused the music mogul of forcing employees to work long hours by threatening them with physical or reputational harm and forcing an employee to engage in a sexual encounter with the musician.
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright and Kirill Clark contributed to this report.
