Diddy may face additional charges in his federal sex-crime case.
Less than a month after his arrest on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, the embattled hip-hop mogul appeared before Judge Arun Subramanian for a pre-trial hearing. During Thursday’s court proceedings, prosecutors revealed a superseding indictment may be on the horizon, meaning Diddy’s original indictment could be amended with more charges.
The judge also set a trial date for May 5, giving prosecutors roughly half a year to gather more evidence.
Diddy is currently facing felony counts in a federal indictment: racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution — all of which he has denied. He has spent the last several weeks locked up in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, despite his attorneys’ repeated efforts to secure his bail.
According to TMZ, Judge Subramanian told the court Diddy would return to MDC following the hearing, as he didn’t have the defendant’s latest bail appeal.
Ahead of the pre-trial hearing, TMZ shared a report in which sources were cited as claiming that Diddy had brought on two more attorneys, Anthony Ricco and Alexandra Shapiro. Throughout the Bad Boy Records founder's case, prosecutors have maintained their assessment of him as a flight risk. Concerns have also been raised over what prosecutors say is the potential for witness tampering.
On Oct. 9, Diddy’s team, as seen in court docs obtained by Complex, filed a motion for pretrial release. In docs, Diddy is seen asking that the court “order his release on appropriate bail conditions, and order his immediate release pending disposition of this appeal.” Key to the argument, per Diddy’s legal team, is that Diddy is “hardly a risk of flight.” According to Diddy’s team, which does indeed now count Shapiro in its ranks,“sensationalism” surrounding the initial arrest has caused what they allege is a distortion of bail analysis.
“Long before his indictment, Mr. Combs took numerous steps demonstrating his trustworthiness and commitment to proving his innocence in this case,” Shapiro and company write in the docs. “Since early 2024, he understood he was the target of a serious federal investigation. Nonetheless, he immediately directed his counsel to proactively reach out to prosecutors. He subsequently took extraordinary steps to voluntarily surrender and try to satisfy any possible government concerns about flight risk.”
Also mentioned in the motion is the oft-headlined focus on what the government has repeatedly referred to throughout the case as “Freak Offs,” like so: “Mr. Combs believes the evidence will show that to the extent such activities occurred, all individuals who participated were adults voluntarily engaged in consensual sex.”
In short, the appeal saw Shapiro arguing that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence to support keeping Diddy detained until trial. Furthermore, the appeal argues that in doing so, a “legal error” has been made.
Diddy was arrested in New York in September. An unsealed indictment later revealed charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Diddy, said at the time that his client was “an imperfect person” but “not a criminal.” Agnifilo also said that his client “looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Read the full indictment here, and for a more in-depth look at the hearing, head here.
This story is being updated.