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Sean “Diddy” Combs could be released on bail before Thanksgiving.
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In their fight to keep him inside, prosecutors say he made obstructive statements from prison.
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On Monday, Combs’ lawyers quoted Donald Trump as saying that defendants enjoy a broad right to free speech.
In his fight to be released on bail as early as Thanksgiving, Sean “Diddy” Combs is now turning for help to the only federal defendant more famous than himself: President-elect Donald Trump.
Combs’ lawyers quoted Trump on Monday in a legal brief aimed at refuting prosecutors’ claim that he improperly tried to influence potential jurors in his sex trafficking case through an online PR campaign.
Combs’ attorneys cite an appellate decision in the D.C. Trump election interference case, which argued that defendants enjoy broad rights to free speech under the First Amendment.
“Only a significant and imminent threat to criminal justice will support restricting Mr. Trump’s speech,” the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a December decision that Combs’ attorneys now cite.
Like Trump, Combs is a criminal defendant with the presumption of innocence, the rap mogul’s lawyers wrote on Monday.
That means Combs has a greater constitutional right than other participants in the trial — including defense counsel — “to criticize and speak out against the prosecutor and the criminal process that seek to deprive his liberty,” says Combs’ eight-page file.
“Accordingly, the Court should apply Trump’s heightened standard in assessing Mr. Combs’s speech here,” the filing adds.
The defense team is responding to last week’s request from U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian that both sides explain why Combs’ public communications from prison do or do not constitute an obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors argued last week that Combs orchestrated a public relations campaign while locked up in a Brooklyn detention center, where he awaits a May 5 trial date in federal court in Manhattan.
In one example cited by prosecutors, Combs urged family members to make an Instagram post showing support for him as they celebrate his 55th birthday.
To arrange the mail, Combs used a messaging app banned by the Bureau of Prisons, contactmeasap.com, prosecutors argued last week.
When arranging the mail. Combs even ignored his own attorneys’ warnings, telling them, “I don’t care. It’s my birthday,” lead prosecutor Christy Slavick had argued during a bail hearing on Friday.
In addition to using the texting app, Combs used at least eight other inmates’ phone accounts and allowed third parties to plug into his phone calls, all of which are prohibited by prison rules, Slavik told the judge.
These violations were committed with “the intent to undermine the integrity of this proceeding” in ways that go beyond a simple “PR campaign” to burnish his image, she told the judge.
“He says I want to, and quote, ‘reach this jury. I just need one,'” Slavik told the judge Friday, quoting from Combs’ communications from jail.
On Monday, Combs’ attorneys told the judge that he has the right to fight back against the barrage of “false and outrageous claims” filed against him for months by “government agents, plaintiffs’ attorneys and others with questionable motives.”
“This non-stop drumbeat of negative publicity has destroyed his reputation and will make it virtually impossible for him to receive a fair trial,” they wrote.
“Mr. Combs does not have to stand idly by and accept all of this. He has a right to a fair trial and a constitutional right to speak out on his own behalf,” they wrote.
The filing, signed by attorney Alexandra AE Shapiro, added that Combs did not reveal any false or non-private material, or do anything else inappropriate.
“The government’s arguments that asking his children to post birthday wishes on Instagram and that he has no right to publicly express his opinion that this prosecution is racially motivated are simply an unconstitutional attempt to silence him ,” the lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to Combs’ filing. The judge told the parties Friday that he would rule on Combs’ latest bail application — his third — sometime this week.
Read the original article on Business Insider
