Last week, on the day he was sued for at least the ninth time in less than a year, Sean Combs was determined to get a message through to one of his protégées, prosecutors in his federal criminal case said.
The music mogul, who was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, is alleged to have called or texted Kalenna Harper 58 times in four days.
The outreach started, prosecutors said, on the day that another of his protégées, Dawn Richard, who was Harper’s bandmate in the since-disbanded group Diddy — Dirty Money, sued Combs, alleging that he groped and threatened her and at times failed to pay her while he oversaw her career.
And the communication stopped, they said, after Harper took to social media to deny that she had witnessed some of the things Richard’s complaint alleges.
The allegation of communication between Combs and Harper is one of several examples of “witness tampering” and obstruction of justice prosecutors laid out for a judge Tuesday in New York as they argued that Combs was too dangerous, violent and dismissive of the federal case against him to be allowed to return home before his trial.
“This incident is just one way of making clear that this defendant has the ongoing ability to keep witnesses, even witnesses who might have been around for very distant-in-time abuse, in his pocket and at his disposal,” one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson, told a judge Tuesday.
Combs’ attorneys had asked that he be released on bail and said he could post a $50 million bond. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied their request Tuesday, saying, in part, that even with a bond, she could not “reasonably assure his return to court or the safety of the community, or a lack of witness tampering.”
U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr. upheld that decision Wednesday after an appeal from Combs’ attorney.
Tuesday’s hearing provided the first public acknowledgment that authorities believe Combs has tried to silence people who might speak out against him. Prosecutors said that since he was sued in November by his former longtime girlfriend, who alleged years of physical and sexual abuse, he has contacted not only Harper, but also witnesses who received grand jury subpoenas and at least one person he is alleged to have harmed.
An attorney for Combs said he could not have obstructed justice, in part because he did not know he was the subject of a criminal investigation.
Johnson, the prosecutor, told the judge: “The defendant’s power gives him a unique ability to influence and intimidate witnesses and victims. Witnesses we have interviewed have universally expressed their fear of the defendant. His influence makes it extremely difficult to convince people that they will be safe from his actions.”
Prosecutors said Combs began contacting Harper shortly after Richard alleged in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10 that Combs assaulted, groped and imprisoned her. In a statement, an attorney for Combs called Richard’s lawsuit “an attempt to rewrite history” and accused her of “trying to get a pay day.” Richard says in her lawsuit that Harper was present during some of those interactions and that they both witnessed Combs’ abuse of his former longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie who was signed to his record label, Bad Boy.
Harper said in a statement Friday, in part, that “many of the allegations and incidents described in this suit are not representative of my experiences, and some do not align with my own truth.”
Johnson said that from the date of Richard’s filing to the day after Harper’s statement, Combs and Harper “had 128 total phone contacts,” with Combs calling or texting Harper 58 times in four days.
“There hasn’t been any contact since Sept. 14,” Johnson said.
Attempts to reach Harper for comment at phone numbers and email addresses listed for her and through her social media accounts were unsuccessful.
One of Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, told the judge Tuesday that Harper’s eventual statement was “the furthest thing from witness obstruction I can think of,” saying it reflected just “two witnesses having divergent recollections of similar events.”
He added that he did not see how Combs could have obstructed justice when Richard had not been identified as a witness in the federal case.
In court Tuesday, prosecutors also accused Combs of twice calling an unnamed person whom he financially supports three days after Ventura filed her lawsuit. Ventura sued Combs in November, alleging he physically abused her during their yearslong relationship, raped her on one occasion when she tried to leave him and forced her to participate in drug-fueled orgies with male prostitutes that he called “freak offs” while Combs watched and masturbated and sometimes recorded them. They settled the lawsuit a day after it was filed without disclosing the terms and with Combs denying any wrongdoing.
Combs, Johnson said, “asked for the victim’s support and friendship and attempts to convince the victim that she had willingly engaged in sex acts with him.”
In one of the calls prosecutors referred to in court Tuesday, they said Combs can be heard telling the alleged victim that “if she continues to be on his side and provide support and friendship that she doesn’t have to worry about anything else,” which, Johnson said, “is just a thinly veiled reference to continuing that financial support.”
Johnson said both calls were recorded.
Johnson also said that since Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs and his alleged co-conspirators had contacted alleged victims and witnesses — including people who had received grand jury subpoenas from the government in his case. Johnson said the “contact has occurred prior to dates of testimony or meetings with the government.” And, in one case, it allegedly involved a person whom Combs had not spoken to in years, Johnson said.
Prosecutors say Combs and his alleged co-conspirators would try to avoid detection when they reached out to alleged victims and witnesses, including using intermediaries to reach out to people.
“It’s ways like this that make this obstruction incredibly difficult to detect,” Johnson said Tuesday in making her case for Combs to remain jailed until his trial. “And from our investigation, we know what’s happened on some of these calls. We know that at least one purpose is to spread false narratives and to get witnesses on his side and by telling them — sometimes gaslighting them — into making them think that something happened that didn’t happen.”
Combs reached out multiple times to at least two witnesses who received grand jury subpoenas this summer, Johnson said. She said the witnesses who received subpoenas have firsthand knowledge of Combs’ behavior as charged in the indictment.
Agnifilo argued that Combs could not have obstructed justice because he was unaware he was the subject of a criminal investigation in November. “So I don’t see any of these things as obstruction of justice,” Agnifilo said.
Combs has been indicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
The indictment alleges that Combs and members of his staff operated a criminal enterprise that participated in sex trafficking and other crimes, primarily to facilitate and cover up “freak offs” — defined in the indictment as “highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity” in hotels and at other locations that “occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers.” During such events, according to the indictment, women were plied with drugs to keep them “obedient and compliant” as they were forced to have sex with male prostitutes.
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