Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy Claims Investigator Targeted His Jail Cell in Raid

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

The high-powered defense team for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is once again slamming the federal government. In a new filing, the defense calls out a specific investigator, saying he traveled all the way from West Virginia to New York to get a look at what was inside Combs’ jail cell in Brooklyn. Law&Crime’s Elizabeth Millner has the latest.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If your child, under 21, has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or fatty liver disease, visit https://forthepeople.com/food to start a claim now! GUEST HOST:Elizabeth Millner: https://www.x.com/_emillner LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The high-powered defense team for music mogul Sean Diddy Combs is once again slamming the federal government, saying not only is the prosecution's so-called filter team not doing its job, but they're calling out a specific investigator. They say he traveled from West Virginia to New York just to look at what was inside Combs' jail cell. Then they say he leaked that information to the prosecution. It's all laid out in a scathing new court filing. Welcome to Sidebar presented by Law and Crime. I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse Weber. This is a law and crime

legal alert. Did you know that children are being diagnosed with serious conditions like type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? And research is potentially leaking ultra-processed foods to these outcomes. Well, Morgan and Morgan is stepping in to fight to hold food companies accountable. With decades of experience, fighting large corporations, they're ready to stand up for families who deserve justice. So if you're a child under 21 has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or fatty liver disease, visit www.4 the people.com. food to learn more. Sean Combs' defense team is not slowing down over the holidays.

Instead, as their client sits in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, denied bail on multiple occasions by multiple federal judges, the attorneys have filed another motion in support of a hearing. They are alleging that a search done at the MDC by the Bureau of Prisons was actually a ruse to get into Combs' jail cell and dig for information. As a quick reminder, Combs, who is a music mogul, bad boy records founder, producer and entrepreneur, is facing federal charges out of the Southern District of New York. A grand jury indicted Combs on three federal charges, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking

by force fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution, all of which he pleaded not guilty to. Combs traveled from his home in Miami to New York back in September, which his defense says was because he was planning to turn himself in, but instead he was arrested and he's been behind bars ever since. According to federal prosecutors, Combs used his money and influence to force people to participate in what has been called freak-offs, which are hours-long sexual performances that involve commercial sex workers, drugs, and camera equipment. Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, aka Cassie, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against him at the end of 2023, claiming he forced her to take part in these freak-offs

throughout their abusive relationship. The world got a glimpse of how violent Combs can turn when a 2016 video of Ventura trying to board an elevator at the Intercontinental Hotel in L.A. showed Combs chasing her down in the towel before throwing her to the ground, hitting and dragging her by her hair. Prosecutors claim Ventura was trying to leave a freak off. Then the security video was leaked after a federal raid on Combs' homes in L.A. in Miami this year, but before official charges were filed. The defense has accused the prosecution itself of leaking the video, but a judge found no evidence of that. The prosecutor, Prosecution in defense have made their respective arguments multiple times in front of Judge Arun's Submaranian.

Cameras aren't allowed in federal court, but I've been in the courtroom for most of Combs' hearings, and this is something the defense continues to hammer on about in most of these hearings. Now, in the latest court filing from Monday, the defense claims that the Bureau of Prisons Investigator referred to as Investigator 1 copied notes that Combs had written down in his cell, possibly information that was privileged. Now, back in October, there was a raid by federal investigators at the MDC. According to reports, the MDC is notorious for drugs, weapons, and violence. Officials were reportedly looking for any sort of contraband the inmates might have. Now, Combs was questioned and photographs were taken of items in his cell.

Now, according to a file from federal prosecutors, the sweep was pre-planned and coordinated to ensure the safety and security of the staff and inmates at the MDC and was part of a larger safety and security initiative and not in response to any particular threat or intelligence. The MDC suite planned well in advance of the defendant's arrest and not conducted to target any particular inmate included the jail and the warehouse where MDC food and other property are stored. During the MDC suite, multiple housing units were searched including the defendant's unit. Although the case team, members of the government responsible for investigating, charging, and trying the present case were aware in advance that the defendant's housing unit, in addition to other areas of the jail, would be searched. no one on the case team supervised, conducted, or participated in the search of any housing unit, nor the search of the defendant's bunk area. The case team was not aware in advance of which agents and officers were taking part in the MDC suite, nor what role any specific agent or officer

would play in the MDC suite. The prosecution revealed that an unidentified analysis from the Bureau of Prisons Intelligence and Investigation Unity based in Martinsburg, West Virginia, had been monitoring Combs' recorded calls and emails since his arrest. The government says during the sweep of the defendant's housing unit, the BOP investigator interviewed multiple inmates, including the defendant about potential corruption and contraband at the MDC. Following these interviews, the BOP investigator approached the defendant's assigned bunk to check for contraband.

On the defendant's bunk, the BOP investigator found the following items. One, a Manila folder marked as legal. Two, notes labeled things to do. three, an address book and four personal effects. The BOP investigator felt the outside of the Manila folder marked legal for contraband and feeling none set it aside and did not open or photograph it. The BOP investigator photographed the notes labeled things to do and the address book. Nothing was seized from the defendant as the BOP investigator left the materials on the defendant's assigned funk. That investigator alerted the prosecution that he had taken the photos,

but prosecutors had him give them to the filter team first for review. Now, filter teams also known as taint teams, are pretty controversial in the legal system. The defense might have important or pertinent information that needs to be turned over to the prosecution under the rules of discovery, but that information might also be protected by attorney-client privilege. The filter team serves kind of as a middleman. It's a group of prosecutors not involved in the case, who sift through the evidence to pick out anything that shouldn't be shared with the prosecuting attorneys and remove or redact that

from the discovery of material. The prosecution wrote that accusing the Bureau of Prisons investigator of working on behalf of the prosecutors is meritless. The mere fact that a prison official turned over material seized from a detainee's cell to prosecutors after the fact with no prior coordination regarding the seizure does not show that he acted at their behest. In fact, courts have repeatedly held that search is initiated by prison officials, even where those prison officials later turned over evidence sees from those searches to prosecutors, and such evidence was helpful to a prosecution against the defendant do not implement the Fourth Amendment. The fact is the BOP investigator is part of a law enforcement team that operates independently from the case team and is emphatically not a member of the prosecution team. But the defense cried foul. They said officials had taken photos of. notepads that had the words legal written on them, meaning they were protected notes by

attorney-client privilege. But there was some confusion about when the word legal was written on the notepad. In the end, the judge had the prosecution throw out 19 pages of material and said they couldn't use it as evidence to deny bail at an upcoming hearing. As I mentioned, Combs ended up being denied bail anyway. And as an interesting side note, the response from the defense was due on Friday, December 27. The lead counsel, Mark Agnifalo, wrote to Judge Arun's Submaranian, saying that the MDC had told them all legal video teleconferences would be canceled between Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas.

Agnifalo wanted to be able to speak with his client about the response, so asked for a small extension, which the judge granted. So the defense has continued to argue that Combs's rights were violated, and they want to have a hearing about it. Monday's filing reads, quote, it is indisputable that a BOP investigator based, in West Virginia had been feeding Mr. Combs' jail communications to the prosecutors. It is also indisputable that he traveled to New York for a BOP sweep ostensibly aimed at potential corruption and contraband at the MDC, and that despite finding none, he inspected

and copied Mr. Combs' privileged notes. At the very least, this egregious invasion of Mr. Combs' constitutional rights raises numerous questions that can only be answered through a discovery in an evidentiary hearing. The filing continues to state, quote, The government's breezy response stooped to unjustified and irrelevant mudslinging and mischaracterizes the controlling case law and the key facts about the filter team protocol. Apparently lacking any concern for the fairness of these proceedings, the government minimizes the breaches of Mr. Combs' privilege and privacy, hoping the court will accept its unsworn say-so and not bother with the hearing. The defense has repeatedly presented sworn testimony and evidence, but the government offers no actual evidence support. reporting its slippery and inconsistent claims about the underlying facts sufficient to

meeting the controlling legal standard. Instead of submitting, for instance, a sworn declaration by Investigator 1 explaining what happened and why, the prosecutors expect the court to simply accept their unsworn hearsay assertions even though they are self-contradictory and provide few answers to the legal questions. The court should refuse to do so. It should insist on sworn testimony from Investigator 1 and the production of his written communications with the prosecutors. A hearing is the only way to find the true fact so the court can assess how best to remedy this grave violation of Mr. Combs' constitutional rights.

The defense argued that the court needs to dig deeper into the Bureau of Prison's reasons for the raid instead of just taking the prosecution's word for it. The defense argues, quote, the issue is why investigator once searched and photographed Mr. Combs' personal notes and immediately offered to share them with the prosecutors. The government still has not offered any explanation whatsoever for these actions. As to the notes, even though the court specifically asked the prosecutors at the November 19, 2024 hearing, whether Investigator 1 thought of himself as an agent of the prosecution team and took it upon himself to aid the investigation effort by photographing these pages.

The government refuses to tell the court what Investigator 1 has to say about his motivations or thinking. The far more likely reason for investigators one's conduct is the same one that motivated his prior work on this case. He sought to collect evidence for this prosecution. The government admits Investigator 1 had been reviewing the defendant's recorded phone calls and emails since the defendant was detained. Throughout that period, the case team had communicated with him regarding the defendant's monitored communications and had issued legal process to obtain such communications. The government does not detail those communications, but it never denies the obvious. Investigator 1 understood himself to be investigating Mr. Combs' communications on behalf of the prosecution team.

The government denies coordination before the search, but even if literally true, that claim ignores the context. The case team's prior work with Investigator 1 to procure evidence against Mr. Combs. If Investigator 1 inspected the notes and photographed them to assist the prosecutors as demonstrated above, then the intrusion at the issue was intentional government conduct requiring careful scrutiny in the form of a hearing. The defense has also challenged the filter team assigned to this case, but the defense says the filter team isn't following its own protocol and has instead handed basically everything over to the government's prosecution team. The filing says, quote, at best the case team was willfully blind to the fact that the notes contained privileged materials

and deliberately chose to stick its head in the sand and used them without first confirming that they were not actually privileged. And the defense says the notes the investigators saw weren't just random writings. The filing reads, quote, the notes on their face are not just vague allusions to usual defense tactics. They reference how to discredit particular allegations and witness testimony, obtaining specific types of experts for trial and collecting cross-examination material on particular witnesses. Moreover, the government fails to explain why Investigator 1 rivaled through seven pages of additional privilege material. The photograph page,

1 and 2 of Exhibit 1 or what Investigator 1 told prosecutors about those notes. The defense is requesting the court to do one of three things. One hold what's called a castigar hearing. That's a hearing where the prosecution has to prove to the court that its evidence comes from legitimate independent sources. Two, appoint a special master to make sure that all judicial orders are being followed. Or three, dismiss the charges in their entirety. Of course, we'll continue to monitor for updates in this very high profile case, which is

to go to trial in just five months, and of course, we'll bring you new updates as we continue to learn them. But that does it for this episode of Sidebar. Be sure to subscribe to us anywhere you listen to your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse Weber, and on behalf of all of us here at Law and Crime, I want to wish you all a happy and safe New Year's. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.