Judge orders prosecutors to destroy notes seized from Sean Combs' jail cell!
What exactly happened in court today? Why was Diddy all smiles?!
When we first learned of the search and seizure that was done on Sean Diddy Combs, jail cell, I had a gut feeling this would backfire on the prosecution!
Tuesday, Sean Diddy Combs was in court after his attorneys called an emergency hearing. This came after Combs cell was raid. While Combs claims that The Fed's raided things in his cell illegally. Prosecutors say it was just a regular search and seize that was planned before he had even arrived.
Combs flashed a big smile as he sauntered into court on Tuesday. The defense also asked to have Combs unshackled during his court appearances and the judge agreed to it. It was the first time he appeared without shackles around his ankles. Walking in with confidence and making eye contact, smiling with the media gallery. It seems as if he thinks hes on a red carpet and not in court!
Combs appeared pleased to walk in so freely. He hugged each of his lawyers and seemed very confident! You would think that someone who was about to go on trial for sex trafficking charges and being in a detention center for the last 2 months, that he would feel defeated. But that was not the case. He appeared very jovial. According to reporters inside.
The last time we heard from him was the ‘Happy Birthday’ phone call, and he sounded pretty happy and confident then too. Then again are we surprised? This man is one of the most entitled people in the world. He said himself he's a ‘Savage’ and ‘Whatever He wants. He will get!’
Diddys kids and mother were not there. Again, you would expect his demeanor to be a little more somber, but he was the Sean Diddy Combs that we all know. The bad boy for the life. His motto is ‘Cant stop won't stop’. Not even phased by what is happening around him.
Combs had other reason to smile after Judge Arun Subramanian ordered federal prosecutors to destroy several pages of Combs' handwritten notes they had obtained from a raid carried out at MDC-Brooklyn, where Combs is being held without bail.
While the exchanges between the attorneys and the judge were going on, Combs appeared very focused nodding his head along. He was taking notes. He was passing notes to his defense attorneys. He was very laser focused when the judge was asking about the notes and the whole debacle that was going on. Diddy was very adamant that these were illegal notes that were taken. And that they DID violate attorney-client privilege.
"The government should not be in possession of the 19 pages," Judge Subramanian said at the end of an hour-long hearing. He told prosecutors to “get rid of” their copies of handwritten notes taken by Combs in jail. Essentially, making the decision as he considers legal arguments from Combs’ lawyers that the notes were subject to attorney-client privilege and counter arguments from prosecutors who accused Combs of writing about a witness tampering plot.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo held a stack of notepads, folders and papers that were initially seized from Combs' bunk and pointed out that Combs "has handwritten the word 'legal' on them. He argued every page from the stack is subject to the attorney-client privilege.
“Self-labeling something 'legal' does not automatically make it subject to the attorney-client privilege," the prosecutor, Christy Slavik, said. "The government received these materials through a completely appropriate channel." Prosecutors cited Combs' notes in their argument against granting Combs bail, saying they left a "strong inference" that Combs had paid off a potential witness.
The judge definitely was not pleased! And the prosecution seemed just as stunned. Based on the Transcript, it seemed he was not only open to the defense's accusations of defense's claims, but he seemed to side with them a little bit. The judge was very no-nonsense. He had a lot of follow-up questions for the government and their arguments about what occurred and how it all occurred. Reporters say that he kind of was siding with the defense on whether or not that fourth amendment and that attorney-client privilege was violated. So it did appear that the defense was going to get a win in this case. The judge said he would no longer consider the example (that Combs had paid off a potential witness.) when he decides whether to release Combs on bail during a hearing Friday.
Repoers from inside the courtroom also say that the prosecution didn't sound as put together as they should have been. Maybe the prosecution wasn't prepared because it was a kind of an emergency hearing requested by the defense? In this case though, when you're dealing with somebody like Sean diddy Combs, you have to cross your t's dot all your I’s and make sure your Ducks are in a row.
“So I was actually kind of surprised at the government's arguments of everything that kind of occurred. They didn't feel the defense needed to hear or see these types of items. They didn't feel that the information needed to be in their possession. And so the judge kind of called them out on it and I was very surprised. Thinking that the defense would get a win in this argument.”
-Elizabeth Milner
But apparently they were unprepared. Which makes you wonder what's REALLY going down? Obviously we're going to have to wait til Friday. When diddy and his attorneys will appear in front of the judge, again, for a bail hearing.
In my opinion, I think that we should prepare for ANYTHING with his bail hearing on Friday. Although it is more likely than not that Diddy will remain held in jail. He now has an avenue for release. To me, the prosecution made a huge mistake. In intercepting that attorney crime privileged communication. They could have had a clean team do the raid and then hand over all the items to the court. So the court could make a determination of what's attorney-client privilege. They didn't do that. And I think that they made a big strategic error by doing that. I mean, clearly it is at least a little bit negatively impact them going into the bail motion on Friday.
What do you guys think? Was this a planned raid to help Diddy get out in bail?