Sean Combs will attend a hearing at a federal courthouse in Manhattan this afternoon. Combs’ lawyers will ask a judge to release him on $50 million bond after his initial two bond requests were denied.
Combs’s bond request will be heard by a new judge who will also preside over his criminal trial next year.
The rap mogul is being held at a Brooklyn detention center following his arrest in September on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
In a new court filing this week, Combs’ legal team accused the federal government of leaking hotel video of him beating ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. The lawyers claimed the government leaked the hotel video and other confidential information to CNN.
Homeland Security agents raided Combs’ properties in Miami and Los Angeles in March. Agents seized boxes of videos, laptops, USB drives, and other electronics from the homes.
Combs’ lawyers claim that the Department of Homeland Security leaked the video to CNN as part of a scheme to secure an indictment from the federal grand jury and prevent him from getting a fair trial.
“The videotape was leaked to CNN for one reason alone: to mortally wound the reputation and the prospect of Sean Combs successfully defending himself against these allegations,” the lawyers, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, wrote.
The lawyers said Cassie Ventura was likely not the one who leaked the video to CNN because she secured the bag by settling a lawsuit in November.
The court filing cited a federal rule that prohibits prosecutors or government agents from disclosing matters occurring before a grand jury.
In an email that was submitted to the court, one of the federal prosecutors, Emily A. Johnson, denied that the government leaked the video to CNN.
Johnson wrote that “the government possessed no surveillance video at all from the InterContinental prior to CNN’s public broadcast.” She added that any accusation of a government leak lacked “a good faith basis.”
