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    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Lawyers Argue Seizure of Jail Notes Was Unjust

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    Lawyers for the music mogul objected at a hearing to prosecutors viewing handwritten materials from their client’s cell after a sweep of the Brooklyn jail where he is being held.Sean Combs appeared in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday as his lawyers objected to the prosecution’s use of handwritten notes found inside the music mogul’s jail cell, arguing that his rights had been violated when they were turned over to prosecutors.The dispute stemmed from a recent sweep of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Mr. Combs has been held since September. Prosecutors cited the notes, which they contend exposed prohibited behavior, in a court filing last week in which they argued Mr. Combs should remain incarcerated until his trial, which is scheduled for May.The text of Mr. Combs’s notes was redacted from the public record. But prosecutors said it showed that he was trying to obstruct their case, by suggesting that he had paid a potential witness to post a statement on social media expressing support for him. Another note, the government said, related to him directing someone to find “dirt” on two alleged victims.Mr. Combs’s lawyers quickly lodged an objection to the prosecution’s possession of the notes, arguing that it was a violation of attorney-client privilege.“This has been a complete institutional failure,” Marc Agnifilo, Mr. Combs’s lead lawyer, said at the hearing.The prosecution has defended its handling of the notes, writing in court papers that the sweep was preplanned and not engineered to target Mr. Combs. The government further said that any recovered material was reviewed by a “filter team” within the U.S. attorney’s office tasked with excluding any privileged materials from prosecutors handling the case.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Strange Cellmates in a Brooklyn Jail: Sean Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried

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      Mr. Combs is sleeping in the same dormitory-style room as Mr. Bankman-Fried, the crypto mogul who was convicted of fraud.Sean Combs is living in the same unit of a Brooklyn jail as Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto mogul convicted of fraud, sleeping in a dormitory-style room with a group of other defendants assigned to the same section, according to a person familiar with the living arrangements.Mr. Combs has been held in the jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center, for nearly a week, since federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in what the government has called a “decades-long pattern of physical and sexual violence.”He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers argued strenuously for him to be released on bail, proposing to a judge that he put up a $50 million bond and hire a security team to monitor him at all hours. The judge rejected the proposal, saying that he had concerns about Mr. Combs attempting to witness tamper, landing him in a special housing unit that often holds high-profile inmates.A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons said the agency “does not provide information about conditions of confinement, including housing assignments or internal security practices for any particular incarcerated individual.”Mr. Bankman-Fried has been housed in the jail, known as M.D.C., since last year, when his bail was revoked after a judge ruled that he had violated conditions of his release. In the lead-up to his trial, his lawyers complained that he had only intermittent internet access and could not adequately prepare for his case. They said that Mr. Bankman-Fried, a vegan, was subsisting on a diet of water, bread and peanut butter.Mr. Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was convicted of masterminding a sweeping fraud in which he siphoned billions of dollars of his customers’ money into venture capital investments, political contributions and other lavish spending. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs Is Denied Bail and Held at M.D.C., a Troubled Brooklyn Jail

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      The music mogul, who is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, was denied bail and ordered held at a federal detention center. His lawyers are appealing.When Sean Combs flew from Miami to New York this month to prepare for an expected federal indictment, he left behind his expansive mansion with multiple pools, a spa and a guesthouse on a man-made island.Going forward, though, home for Mr. Combs will most likely be the Metropolitan Detention Center, a hulking concrete structure in Brooklyn that houses more than 1,200 people and has a reputation for poor conditions.Mr. Combs was ordered held in federal detention on Tuesday and taken to the Brooklyn jail after a judge denied him bail. A grand jury had indicted him on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, and prosecutors said he was a dangerous person who would be at risk to flee if released.It was a sudden change of circumstances for a music producer, known in the industry as Diddy and Puff Daddy, who has been wealthy since becoming one of the most prominent record label founders of the 1990s. Jail records now have him registered under the number 37452-054.The M.D.C., as it is known, has been troubled by deaths and suicides and an electrical fire that once left inmates without heat for days in the dead of winter. A lawyer for Edwin Cordero, a detainee who died there in July from injuries he sustained in a fight, called the prison “an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal jail that is hell on earth.”The Bureau of Prisons responded to criticism in a statement that said it “takes seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintain the safety of correctional employees and the community.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More