Sean “Diddy” Combs accuses Homeland Security of “unlawful” hanging him with footage of 2016 Casey Ventura beating

Looking at life behind bars after being convicted of sex trafficking and more, Sean “Diddy” Combs and his lawyers are now on the offensive against the Department of Homeland Security.

In a risky move, Combs' defense is accusing DHS agents of leaking information to the grand jury and launching a smear campaign against the “It's All About the Benjamins” actor. As Coombs Stuke is denied bail at Brooklyn's mock Metropolitan Detention Center, his Mark Agnifilo and Tenny Geragos team is demanding a crucial hearing before Judge Arun Subramanian ASAP on DHS “misconduct.”

“Defendant Sean Combs moved for four types of relief based on what the defense believes were a series of illegal government leaks, which led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that could only taint the jury pool and disqualify Mr. Combs from it.” The right to a fair trial,” declared a potentially confusing memorandum of law in support of a motion for an evidentiary hearing filed late Wednesday in federal court.

Read Sean Combs' defense memorandum accusing DHS of misconduct here

The newly filed document beats a very similar drum, a day after the Bad Boy Records founder was arrested on Sept. 16 and began his petition for pre-trial release claiming the feds withheld evidence. However, unlike the Hail Mary appeal, which saved its ire for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, this filing is almost entirely DHS-almost. Indeed, playing on the usual jockeying and infighting within the bureaucracy, Combs' team says “the reason the hearing is needed is to determine exactly what DHS did and did not do about this leak and what the US Attorney's Office did. And did nothing to stop them.”

Lamenting DHS's “underhanded tactics,” today's filing hopes to recast the feds' March 25 raids on Coombs' Miami and LA homes as “specifically designed as public spectacles of atrocities and not primarily focused solely on obtaining potential evidence.”

In that vein, the defense invoked claims of rape, abuse and other atrocities that Combs' ex-girlfriend Casey Ventura made against the rapper in her short-lived and quickly settled lawsuit in November of last year. Although Combs reportedly paid Ventura nearly $30 million to settle her case, she has always denied her allegations that they were together for years. That facade fell pretty quickly in 2016 when security footage of Combs being assaulted and beaten in the hallway of an upmarket LA hotel hit the airwaves on CNN and elsewhere in May.

At the time, Combs apologized for her “inexcusable behavior,” saying the video “upset” her. Now, citing the public airing of the eight-year-old surveillance video as the “most egregious example” of government prosecution by public opinion, the defense seeks a “gag order” and “suppression of any evidence leaked by government employees.”

Seeking to keep that brutal video away from the jury, the defense says: “The videotape was leaked to CNN for one reason only: to seriously damage Son Combs' reputation and prospects for successfully defending himself against these charges. Instead of using the videotape as trial evidence, along with other evidence that gave it context and meaning, the agents misused it in the most damaging and damaging way possible. The government knew what he had: a frankly sadistic video recording of Sean Combs hitting, kicking and dragging a woman with a towel in full view of the camera in a hotel hallway.”

“The potential problem for the government is that if an agent were to provide this videotape to CNN, it would be a violation of grand jury confidentiality,” adds Combs' team Shiv Roy Cohn-style sticking.

But here's the thing, it's not clear from today's filing that the defense really thinks their DHS is on the run. “After informing the undersigned government that we would file this motion, prosecutors responded that the video broadcast by CNN was not obtained through the grand jury process and that DHS did not have rights to the videotape prior to CNN's release,” a footnote in Wednesday's 17-page memo states. . “However, government attorneys have given no indication that they have investigated any leaks related to this case.”

To that end, neither SDNY US Attorney Damian Williams' office nor a representative from DHS responded to a request by deadline for today's filing and the allegations it contains. If any entities get back to us, this post will be updated.

With all that going on and the bail appeal process beginning, tomorrow will see Combs, his lawyers and prosecutors back in court for a pre-trial status conference.

Issues likely to be raised include discovery, sealing certain evidence and scheduling a trial for Combs. “Mr. Combs continues to assert his right to a speedy trial and intends to request a trial date in April or May 2025 consistent with the court's trial schedule,” Agnifilo and Geragos said in a letter to Judge Subramanian.

With these new allegations from the defense, and the status of the bail application, that trial start date could be very optimistic.