Will P. Diddy get out of prison before the trial that all of America is waiting for?

The 54-year-old rapper-producer has been incarcerated in Brooklyn federal prison since mid-September.

His team of lawyers, which is growing day by day, has just filed a third request for bail.

Accused of sex trafficking, he should not escape a trial which is already fascinating the entire media.

P. Diddy affair: the American rapper at the heart of a scandal

P. Diddy affair: the American rapper at the heart of a scandal

So far, the courts have said no. After two rejections in quick succession, P. Diddy’s lawyers have just filed a third request for release on bail for their client, behind bars after his arrest in Manhattan on September 16. Accused of “sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation for the purposes of prostitution”, the 54-year-old rapper-producer is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal prison infamous for its overcrowding and its conditions of detention to say the least Spartan.

He wakes up on a steel bed with a two-centimeter mattress, without a pillow, in a 7 m² cell which is, I assure you, disgusting“, said on CNN Michael Cohen, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers who experienced the venue in 2020 after being convicted of election law violations and tax fraud. The previous year, a power outage had left some 1,600 detainees without lighting or heating for a week, pushing some to begin a hunger strike.

The same lawyer as DSK in 2011

To regain his freedom, P. Diddy – real name Sean John Combs – called on the best lawyers in New York. Among them, a certain Marc Agnifilo whose name doesn’t say much on this side of the Atlantic. And yet. On May 19, 2011, this former associate of the famous Benjamin Braffman was alongside Dominique Strauss-Kahn when the former director general of the IMF was formally charged and released on bail in the Nafissatou Diallo affair.

In a documentary produced by the site TMZMarc Agnifilo pulls out all the stops to defend his sulphurous client. According to him, the federal authorities are “historically at odds with successful black men“. Not being able to take care of his business because “he does everything according to the rules“, they would have decided to attack his private life. And his “unbridled” sexuality in particular.

Diddy and his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie. Last December, she withdrew her complaint following a financial agreement. – AFP

This somewhat surrealist mode of defense did not really convince the justice system to release the superstar. Despite a proposed bail of $50 million, and a promise not to come into contact with the women who accuse him, there is no indication that he will be released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in the coming months. Especially since his file grows heavier by the hour.

In a civil complaint filed in New York last Tuesday, businesswoman Thalia Graves accuses P. Diddy of having “brutally raped” in 2001 in the studios of his production house Bad Boy Records, in New York, with the help of an accomplice. Before his arrest in a palace in Manhattan, he was already the target of around ten complaints for rape or assault Last December, his ex-partner, singer Cassie, withdrew hers following a financial agreement.

Several documentaries in preparation

Aware that this time he will not escape a highly publicized trial, the rapper-producer has decided to expand his team of lawyers in recent hours. To support Marc Agnifilo, he has just hired Anthony Ricco, a tenor of the New York bar, specialist in criminal cases, and his no less renowned colleague Alexandra Shapiro, author in 2022 of a bestseller entitled… Presumed Guilty.

Across the Atlantic, the P. Diddy affair unleashes passions and dominates the front pages of the press. Seven years after the revelations of the Weinstein affair, which had lifted the veil on the sordid backstage of the film industry, it is those of music which are today being singled out, the rapper being linked, directly or indirectly. far, to dozens of hip-hop and R’n’B stars still active.

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Apart from the documentary of TMZ already online, several investigations are underway within major American chains. Notorious rival of Diddy, rapper 50 Cent has just joined forces with Netflix to launch a documentary series focusing on his “freak off” evenings, long-term orgies involving hard drugs, sex workers… and everything showbiz of the 2000s.


Jérôme VERMELIN

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