Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs are asking a federal judge to postpone his sex trafficking and racketeering trial by two months, blaming prosecutors for delays and saying they cannot “in good conscience” go to trial in May.
In a letter to the judge filed Wednesday (April 16), the star’s lawyers say the feds are dragging their feet on turning over crucial evidence and that the extra two months will give them “the necessary time to prepare his defense” for a new superseding indictment that was unveiled earlier this month.
The request — far longer than the two-week delay Diddy’s lawyers had hinted they might seek — is opposed by prosecutors, according to the letter: “This is a problem that the government has created, yet it opposes our reasonable request,” write attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos.
A spokesman for the prosecution declined to comment on Combs’ request for a two-month delay.
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation that aimed to “fulfill his sexual desires.” The case centers on elaborate “freak off” parties in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex, as well as on alleged acts of violence to keep victims silent.
A trial has long been set to start on May 5. If convicted on all of the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs faces a potential life prison sentence.
At a hearing Monday, prosecutors told Judge Arun Subramanian that they believed Combs’ legal team was stalling for time, according to the Associated Press. Agnifilo said at the time that he might seek a “very short” two-week adjournment over discovery issues, and Subramanian gave them until Wednesday to file such a request: “We are a freight train moving toward trial,” the judge said.
In Wednesday’s filing seeking instead a two-month delay, Diddy’s lawyers argued that the new indictment implicates “substantially new” alleged conduct. They also said prosecutors were “still producing discovery” and had failed to turn over key materials related to a sex trafficking charge that carries a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence if Combs is convicted.
“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 and Geragos wrote.
Since his indictment, Combs’ legal team has indicated that it wants to take the case against him to trial relatively quickly. After the star was refused bail in September, Agnifilo said he was “going to do everything I can to move his case as quickly as possible.” The start of jury selection for the trial has been scheduled for May 5 since October.
But superseding indictments are a common reason that judges delay criminal trials, giving a defendant more time to prepare a defense to new charges and new evidence. Federal prosecutors have argued that the April indictment was not drastically different than earlier charges, but Diddy’s attorneys say it will put them at a disadvantage.
“We note that the court has broad authority to grant such continuances where the government seeks a superseding indictment which operates to prejudice a defendant,” Agnifilo and Geragos write.
