Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs requests new trial date following fresh charges
Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs and his legal team have asked for his trial to be delayed by two months due to the indictment he faced earlier this month, which saw the prosecution add additional charges. The fresh charges included new counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and an extra count of transportation to engage in prostitution.
As such, Combs and his team, led by Marc Agnifilo, have asked for the trial to be rescheduled so they can deal with and confront the new charges. In a letter to the judge, Arun Subramanian, filed on April 16th, Combs’ team said they cannot proceed with a May trial “in good conscience.”
On April 14th, Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges on the superseding indictment, but additionally, he has added a new attorney to his legal team, Brian Steel, who worked on Young Thug’s YSL RICO case in Georgia.
Combs’ lead attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, explained in the letter to Judge Subramanian that they need “the necessary time to prepare his defence.” Furthermore, they insist that the charges on the superseding indictment have been put there by the government and are not borne out by any evidence, adding, “This is a problem that the government has created, yet it opposes our reasonable request.”
This is not the first time Agnifilo has asked for the date of the trial to be pushed back. Allegedly, during Combs’ hearing on April 14th, Agnifilo asked to delay the trial by a “very short” two-week period. However, that has now turned into two months. According to reports, during the hearing, Judge Subramanian suggested that he would not delay the May trial, stating, “We are a freight train moving toward trial.”
Agnifilo and Geragos’ latest letter has highlighted that superseding indictments such as the one Combs faced earlier this month usually lead to continuances (delays) to allow the defence to update their case. In the letter, they wrote, “We note that the court has broad authority to grant such continuances where the government seeks a superseding indictment which operates to prejudice a defendant.”
For now, Diddy’s trial date remains May 5th, and he is currently behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.