Lawyers for rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs are trying to stop his alleged victims from making any more public statements.
In a court submission on Sunday, they said the stream of statements could prejudice a potential jury.
They filed a gag order request “pursuant to Local Rule 23.1 and the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, to request an order prohibiting further extrajudicial statements from prospective witnesses and their lawyers that substantially interfere with Combs’s right to a fair trial.”
The fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government will not try to take “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and the sixth amendment guarantees an “impartial jury.”
Diddy performs in London on November 7, 2023. He is facing criminal charges for alleged sexual abuse.
Samir Hussein/Getty Images
At the weekend, six more sexual abuse lawsuits were filed against the star, bringing the total number of lawsuits to more than two dozen.
The new lawsuits, filed by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, include an accusation from a personal trainer, who claims he was drugged during an after-party celebrating Combs’ Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards in June 2022.
The man says that, while drugged, he was passed around among guests “like a party favor.”
One alleged victim, Thalia Graves, held a press conference on September 24 in which she alleged that Combs videotaped himself raping her in 2001.
Combs is also facing criminal charges of racketeering as well as other charges.
Prosecutors have told New York federal judge Arun Subramanian that they have “several terabytes of electronic material” from searches in Diddy’s homes in California and Florida.
A terabyte is a thousand gigabytes of data and represents a large volume of material.
That material includes video of Combs’ alleged assaults of women.
In 2016 CNN published hotel surveillance video footage of an attack on his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, for which he publicly apologized.
The 54-year-old is in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial for charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and travel to engage in prostitution, among other charges.
Over 120 alleged victims have come forward accusing him of sex crimes. Diddy denies the charges against him, and according to his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, the rapper plans to testify in court.
Newsweek sought email comment from Agnifilo on Monday.
Prosecutors say in a court filing that their evidence so far includes “physical evidence seized in searches of the defendant’s residence; law enforcement records; search warrant returns, including cell phone location information.”
On October 14, Buzbee filed lawsuits for six other alleged victims, one of whom claims that Combs laced baby oil with the date rape drug, Rohypnol.
“Combs particularly fancied the use of the popular date-rape drug Rohypnol, or GHB, to commit heinous non-consensual acts of sexual violence and rape against countless victims,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims Combs doused victims “in lotions or similar body oils,” laced with GHB “so that the drug would be absorbed through the victim’s skin and make it easier to take advantage of, exploit, and assault him or her.”
The lawsuit also included a photo of a plastic container “used by Combs and/or his agents/employees to insert GHB into alcoholic drinks.”
