Judge keeps Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs behind bars pending trial as damning new texts revealed
Damning new text messages were revealed Wednesday in the sex-trafficking case against Sean “Diddy” Combs — as a Manhattan judge ruled the hip-hop mogul would remain behind bars pending trial.
Manhattan federal Judge Andrew Carter Jr. said Combs’ proposal for home detention and electronic monitoring on $50 million bail were “insufficient” — upholding a magistrate judge’s Tuesday ruling to remand him.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson, during the hearing on Combs’ bail request, used messages between the Bad Boy Records founder and his alleged victims to bolster her argument that he should remain jailed.
One victim allegedly messaged Combs on Nov. 19 after reading allegations in Cassie Ventura’s Nov. 16 lawsuit against the rapper, saying Ventura’s claims sounded like her own.
“I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma,” said the message, read in court by the prosecutor.
“It makes me sick how three solid pages word for word is exactly my experiences and my anguish,” the alleged victim wrote.
Johnson said prosecutors have recordings in which Combs “gaslit” the woman and “attempted to convince her that she had willingly engaged in sex acts with him.”
She also read out messages Combs allegedly sent to Ventura after the infamous caught-on-video attack that he unleashed on his ex-girlfriend, an R&B singer once signed to his label. While Ventura’s name was not said in court, it was clear whom the parties were referring to when referencing the March 5, 2016, assault, footage of which was made public by CNN in May.
“Call me, the cops are here,” Combs texted her, according to Johnson. “I got six kids. You, please call. I’m surrounded. You gonna abandon me all alone.”
She replied: “I have a black eye and a fat lip. You are sick for thinking it’s okay to do what you’ve done. I still have crazy bruising.”
Here's what we know about the allegations against Sean "Diddy" Combs
- Combs was arrested Monday evening at a New York hotel.
- Prosecutors allege Combs participated in sex trafficking and “freak off” parties.
- Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by Homeland Security in March amid a possible ongoing sex-trafficking investigation.
- Authorities targeted the rapper’s homes to seize phones and computers, sources told The Post.
- In November 2023, the rapper was accused of drugging, filming and sexually assaulting a woman on a date in 1991.
Johnson also read messages an unnamed victim wrote to Combs that said, “You always want to show me that you have the power, and you knock me around. I’m not a rag doll. I’m someone’s child.”
If Combs were freed, it could keep witnesses from testifying against him, the prosecutor said.
“Witnesses have expressed to us their extreme fear of the defendant,” Johnson told the judge.
Combs’ defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, assured the judge his client would make all of his court appearances and would abide by their proposed bail conditions — including the promise he wouldn’t have women over to his Miami, Florida, home where he proposed the detention take place.
“A jury of 12 New Yorkers found him not guilty,” Agnifilo said, referencing a 2001 shooting case in Manhattan.
“This is someone who actually has shown that when the chips are down, when the pressure is on, he doesn’t do anything that he’s not supposed to do,” the attorney continued.
“He shows up on time, he shows up every day. He didn’t do anything with witnesses.”
But Carter ultimately said that even with the slew of conditions that Combs’ lawyers offered to petition for his release to home detention, Combs could still “obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses” through other people — even through coded messages.
He ordered that Combs remain at the infamous Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Combs is due back in court on Oct. 9.
The judge also pressed Agnifilo about the 2016 beating, calling it “quite disturbing.”
Agnifilo tried to write it off as a one-time occurence and insisted that Combs — who said he took “full responsibility” for his “inexcusable” behavior after the footage was released — was a reformed man after undergoing rehab.
“In the weeks and months after the video, Mr. Combs realized he has a problem with drug addiction and has a problem with anger. He went into a rehab program for a period of time,” Agnifilo said, and claimed that Ventura also sought treatment at a facility.
The attorney described their 10-year relationship — which began when Ventura was in her early 20s and Combs was around 40 — as loving but “toxic,” saying there had been cheating on both sides.
But the judge said the video showed violence, kicking and screaming.
“What does love have to do with that?” he asked.
At the end of the hearing, which was attended by Combs’ three sons, the music producer, wearing a black T-shirt and dark gray sweatpants, put his hands behind his back and was escorted out of the courtroom by two federal agents.
