Days after Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, a video allegedly showing his detainment has been made public.
In footage published by TMZ Friday, a man who is purportedly Combs walks into a hotel lobby with a group of people and is immediately led away by two men. In another scene, four men lead Combs back out the lobby doors while his hands are behind his back, seemingly in handcuffs.
The incident took place Monday at the Park Hyatt New York, where Combs had been staying for more than a week after traveling to New York, as his lawyers have described, to “surrender” to authorities.
USA TODAY has reached out to Combs’ lawyers for comment on the video.
The morning after his arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday unsealed a 14-page federal grand jury indictment, that revealed an extensive and ongoing federal investigation into the hip-hop icon. Investigators say the 54-year-old elaborately schemed to use his finances and status in the entertainment industry to “fulfill his sexual desires” in a “recurrent and widely known” pattern of abuse.
During his Tuesday arraignment, Combs pleaded not guilty to the three criminal charges. Pending trial, Combs is being held in solitude in the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility that has made headlines for its poor conditions for inmates.
Amid the tidal wave of civil lawsuits filed against him by alleged victims over misconduct claims that span three decades, Combs has maintained his innocence.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter on Wednesday, Combs’ attorneys requested for Combs to be released from custody on a $50 million bond secured by the equity in his and his mother’s houses in Florida on the grounds that he had made himself available to be detained by the government. The letter also noted Combs, his daughters and his mother had surrendered their passports to his legal counsel.
However, two different judges denied Combs’ requests to be released on bond this week. The first judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, sided with U.S. attorneys’ argument that Combs posed a risk if he were to be released for home detention.
“I don’t believe that counsel has the ability to control you, given the very significant concerns I have, particularly because of substance abuse and what seem like anger issues,” Tarnofsky told Combs and his counsel, according to a court transcript reviewed by USA TODAY.
“The danger, I think, is quite serious,” she added of Combs’ release, deciding that the bond package his team offered would not “assure his return to court or the safety of the community, or a lack of witness tampering.”
Why the accusations are ‘very serious’: Legal experts explain the charges Diddy is facing
In a Sept. 17 letter to the judge arguing for Combs to be jailed until he is brought to trial, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claims his office has “the testimony of dozens of witnesses and victims to his serial abuse, and evidence from dozens of his own electronic devices and those of his co-conspirators.”
Investigators have taken in more than 90 cellphones, laptops, cloud storage accounts as well as at least 30 storage devices. They issued more than 300 grand jury subpoenas to obtain this evidence from communications providers, tech and social media companies, financial institutions and Combs’ companies.
“Dozens of victims and witnesses have provided detailed, credible, and corroborated information against the defendant. These individuals include many who personally experienced and witnessed violence and other crimes at the hand of the defendant,” Williams wrote. These witnesses have financial, travel and communications records to back up testimony, he said.
Prosecutors allegedly have “dozens” of videos depicting Combs’ so-called “freak offs” – sometimes dayslong sex performances between sex workers and people he allegedly coerced into participating through narcotics and intimidation – that corroborate witness testimony.
Combs’ indictment states Homeland Security Investigations agents procured drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant that were allegedly used in Combs’ “freak offs” in the March 25 raids of Combs’ homes. Multiple AR-15 rifles and large-capacity magazines were also allegedly discovered.
Combs’ lawyers have vowed to appeal the court’s denials in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His next hearing is Oct. 9.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Diddy’s arrest video shows him handcuffed at hotel
