Hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs’ lawyers informed a federal judge in lower Manhattan on Tuesday that they had gathered sufficient proof to claim that their client’s constitutional rights had been violated.
An October sweep of the defendant’s jail cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park area caused a commotion that prompted the court to call an emergency hearing.
The raid involved participation from a number of law enforcement authorities. Additionally, according to the defense, detectives allegedly went too far by taking pictures of many Combs notebook pages. It is asserted that this eavesdropping has violated the attorney-client privilege by giving the prosecution access to the trial strategy of the defendant and defense counsel, including details of expert testimony, witness strategy, and other private matters.
The case’s presiding judge was appalled by the event.
What took place here? According to an Inner City Press courtroom report, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian requested information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. For what reason were they photographing Mr. Combs’ notebooks?
According to the government’s lawyer, the investigator in question was a Bureau of Prisons official who dealt with jail rule violations and would not have been there otherwise, rather than being a member of the prosecution team. The prosecutor continued by claiming that Combs had indeed been breaking the rules and that the BOP investigator had discovered this by keeping an eye on his interactions.
Does this violate the Fourth Amendment? The government was questioned by the judge.
The prosecutor retorted that the government was unaware that the BOP investigator would be involved in the sweep beforehand and that they were only made aware of the notebook images following the sweep.
This is a “tasteless” situation, according to Combs’ lawyers.
According to the defense’s filing on Tuesday, the trial team has already begun using these confidential papers to its advantage, including opposing bail, while the government claims that these 19 pages were sent to and are in their possession.
The scope of the breach is listed in the defense letter motion:
Additionally, the defense disputes in a footnote that only one notebook was searched, stating that the papers were gathered from several legal pads.
According to Inner City News, the government acknowledged that at least some of those files were lawful, but maintained that their storage did not immediately identify them as such.
Marc Agnifilo, the primary defense lawyer, stated throughout the hearing that neither he nor his client knew the full scope of the breach.
The government retaliated by claiming that they had given the defense even more information than the 19 pages of legal-related material.
The judge didn’t appear to be persuaded.
Is it customary to snap pictures of notebooks instead of taking them so that it can be verified that they were taken?Subramanian inquired.
Christy Slavik, an assistant U.S. attorney, said, “I don’t know.”
How the government found out about the existence of the privileged materials also worried the court.
The prosecutor contended that they were collected as part of a covert inquiry and then delivered by a filtration team. In response to a question about why the government still required a filtration team to handle discovery when charges had already been filed, the prosecutor stated that the grand jury investigation was still in progress and that more charges might be filed in the case.
The judge seems open to prohibiting the government from using at least part of the information during the hearing.
Combs’ lawyers requested that the judge allow them to view surveillance footage of the actual raid, claiming that the sweep was a pretext.
The defense informed the court that they would probably think about submitting a motion to have the current prosecution team removed from the case or to have the indictment dismissed.
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