The judge in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking case demands his lawyers come to his upcoming bail hearing with answers about documents seized from his jail cell.
Combs, 55, will appear in New York court on Friday in a third attempt to be released on bail as he awaits his May sex trafficking trial.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian agreed with the defense motion to destroy copies of 19 pages of handwritten notes allegedly photographed by a government investigator in Combs' jail cell.
Subramanian ruled that the original papers will remain in the court's custody while both sides submit briefs over the next few weeks while he determines if they can be used in the trial.
Combs' defense argued that the photographed legal pads and notes were found in a folder labeled "Legal" and are attorney-client material.
However, the "Legal" label is missing in the photographs turned in to the court, Subramanian said Wednesday in court documents.
"At the scheduled hearing on Friday, November 22, 2024, defense counsel (Combs' team) should be prepared to give the Court further context on the 'Legal' label that the Court was presented with at the November 19, 2024 hearing and to address why this label doesn't appear on the photographs in the Court's possession, and why it wasn't addressed in defendant's submission to the Court made a few hours before the November 19, 2024 hearing," Subramanian wrote.
Newsweek contacted Combs' representatives for comment via email on Wednesday.
The "Bad Boy For Life" rapper's defense claims investigators took photos of material from the "Legal" folder during a recent raid on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The jail said the raid was enacted to confiscate contraband, including drugs, guns and cellphones, but Combs' defense claims he was targeted in the search and that investigators turned over his notes to the government.
Combs was arrested in September on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He denies any wrongdoing.
Tony Buzbee, the Houston-based lawyer representing 120 people in the case, on Tuesday filed five new lawsuits against the rapper on behalf of three males and two females.
Buzbee said the conduct alleged in the lawsuits took place in New York and Miami.
In another lawsuit, filed on Monday, attorneys for an anonymous male celebrity accused Buzbee and his firm of "shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him."
Buzbee denied the allegations in a statement to Newsweek: "We won't allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers to intimidate or silence sexual assault survivors."
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