Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has asked a court to be released from jail to prepare for his trial in May, citing changed circumstances and new evidence.Â
Lawyers for the hip hop mogul, who was arrested on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges in September, filed the new request for bail in a Manhattan federal court.
The 55-year-old’s three previous requests for bail have been rejected, with judges saying there was a risk he may tamper with witnesses.
Combs has been awaiting a 5 May trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Read more: What is Sean Combs charged with?
In their court filing, Combs’s lawyers say they are proposing a “far more robust” bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers.
The amount of money the lawyers have attached to the package is $50m (£38.7m) – the same as previous bail requests.
Combs’s lawyers also cited new evidence that they say “makes clear that the government’s case is thin”.
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That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government’s claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced “freak off” – the name given to drug-fuelled sexual performances Combs and his associates allegedly subjected his victims to that often were recorded and lasted days.
Lawyers wrote that the encounter was instead “a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship” between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
Combs’s lawyers also claimed that his jail conditions violated his constitutional rights to participate in his defence.
US district judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the criminal case, denied an additional request from Combs for a gag order barring his accusers from speaking publicly about the matter.
His lawyers had argued that the approximately 30 civil cases accusing Combs of misconduct or abuse were interfering with his right to a fair trial.
