Diddy Pleads Not Guilty As Legal Team Suggests DelayingTrial
Diddy Pleads Not Guilty Again As Legal Team Suggests Delaying Sex Trafficking Trial
Diddy‘s sex trafficking trial is scheduled to start in just a few weeks, in May, but there may be a delay coming soon.
Now, a New York federal prosecutor has revealed that Diddy’s legal team is looking for a reason to push the date further away.
Marc Agnifilo suggested the adjournment but insisted it’d be “very short”, only two weeks long, because of discovery issues, according to Deadline.
The claim includes blaming the government for failing to request a key witness to give them access to 200,000 of her emails instead of letting her selectively pick them. The witness in question is a former Diddy employee, and his lawyers are unsure if the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York even has the WhatsApp messages they want to review.
Judge Arun Subramania told the defense team —led by Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos— that they’ve got until Wednesday deadline, or 48 hours, to make the pause official so as not to disrupt the schedule, advising them that “We are a freight train moving toward trial.”
However, after the hour-long hearing, Agnifilo’s team says there will be no need for the delay if the feds “get their act together,” ahead of Friday’s next hearing.
Diddy appeared this time, and at the beginning of the session, he put in another not guilty plea.
His defense team is still trying to obtain evidence for discovery, which isn’t the only new development in the case, including his ex, Cassie, testifying under her real name. In an April 4 filing, three other victims will conceal their identities due to their own safety, but will take the stand as well to tell their stories of abuse.
“Permitting these measures will prevent unnecessary public disclosure of the victims’ identities, and the harassment from the media and others, undue embarrassment, and other adverse consequences that would almost certainly follow if these women were forced to reveal their true names publicly at trial,” the filing reads.
There will also be two new charges of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution that Agniilo and team will be attempting to defend.
