A federal decide ordered prosecutors Tuesday to not use papers taken from the jail cell of Sean “Diddy” Combs till he guidelines on protection claims that they’re trial preparation supplies protected by attorney-client privilege.
Choose Arun Subramanian made his ruling at a Manhattan federal courtroom listening to after legal professionals fiercely disputed the circumstances and relevance of the seizure of 19 pages that had been photographed by an investigator contained in the cell of the music mogul.
Combs, who has pleaded not responsible to all expenses, is accused of coercing and abusing ladies for years with assistance from a community of associates and staff.
The seizure got here throughout what the federal government has described as a multi-day sweep of all cells on the Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn, meant to take away any weapons or contraband as an anti-violence measure.
Protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo mentioned he could ask the decide to dismiss the indictment or pressure a recusal of prosecutors if the decide guidelines that the supplies had been obtained and used improperly.
Combs, who hugged his legal professionals when he first entered the courtroom, carried a stack of papers as he was led away on the finish of the listening to.
Agnifilo mentioned he was unaware that the papers in Combs’ cell had been photographed by an investigator with the Bureau of Prisons and turned over to prosecutors till he noticed them cited in written arguments opposing his $50 million bail proposal. A bail listening to is about for Friday.
He mentioned two references to the papers had been made as prosecutors argued that Combs has continued to commit crimes since his September arrest.
Prosecutors mentioned Combs orchestrated social media campaigns aimed toward tainting the jury pool, tried to publicly leak supplies he thought could be useful to his case and contacted potential witnesses by third events.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mary Slavik mentioned the seized supplies had been scrutinized by unbiased authorities legal professionals who’re walled off from the prosecution to find out in the event that they had been protected by attorney-client privilege.
They weren’t mentioned with protection legal professionals as a result of a few of them had been deemed to pertain to a covert and persevering with investigation of Combs, she mentioned.
Slavik additionally mentioned prosecutors had no contact with jail officers beforehand and gave no directions concerning any search of Combs’ cell.
A few of the photographed pages contained a to-do record and inspirational quotes together with feedback about birthdays, based on Slavik, whereas two excerpts pertained to Combs paying and discovering damaging materials about potential witnesses.
Agnifilo mentioned, nonetheless, that even issues that appear unrelated to the case are protected by attorney-client privilege. As an illustration, he mentioned, attorneys have mentioned with Combs potential witnesses they could name.
“Each single factor” within the seized papers is topic to attorney-client privilege as a result of Combs mentioned them with legal professionals, Agnifilo mentioned.
“The federal government now is aware of potential protection witnesses for a Could 5 trial,” he added. “This has been an entire authorities failure.”
The decide requested all sides to submit written arguments within the coming weeks.
This story was initially printed by The Related Press.
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