Diddy's lawyers mock baby oil 'conspiracy theories,' tell federal judge a gag order is needed

21 Oct 2024, 15:00 · Law & Crime

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of ‘The Four: Battle For Stardom’ at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File).

Attorneys for rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs over the weekend once again demanded that alleged victims be identified and asked the judge in the federal RICO and sex trafficking case to put a stop to “extrajudicial statements from prospective witnesses and their lawyers” by issuing a gag order.

The defense letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian was a follow-up on a substantially similar letter warning that Combs’ ability to get a fair trial was all but ruined by a barrage of lawsuits.

In the prior letter, the defense claimed that there are “Many Pretend Victims” and that Combs has a right to know the names of “all individuals it considers to be victims of Mr. Combs’ alleged criminal conduct,” otherwise the defense would be left to play a “guessing game” as to which of Combs’ “prior sexual partners” are years later making “baseless” or “false to outright absurd” allegations under the cloak of anonymity in “opportunistic civil suits.”

At the same time, the defense has argued that the “hysterical media circus” surrounding the case has to be reined in, potentially through a gag order — as seen in civil and criminal cases against Donald Trump.

In the latest defense letter, Combs’ lawyers said their client’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights are in peril so long as “shockingly prejudicial” and “inflammatory extrajudicial statements” — including “false allegations of sexual assault and abuse of minors” — continue to be made in the media by “prospective witnesses and their lawyers” for alleged character assassination purposes.

Some of those statements, the defense said, are “outlandish conspiracy theories.”

As an example, Combs’ lawyers noted that the Daily Beast published a baby oil-related report on Oct. 16 headlined “Diddy Spiked Baby Oil With Date Rape Drug: Accuser’s Lawyer.”

Prosecutors earlier revealed that they are in possession of “several terabytes of electronic material” — that is, thousands upon thousands of gigabytes of data — to work with in their case against Combs, who remains in jail as he’s accused of running a decades-long sex trafficking scheme in which women were abused, threatened, and forced to participate in “Freak Off” sex parties that allegedly involved male sex workers, coerced drug use, and filming without permission.

After the March raids of Combs’ properties in Florida and California, which took place months before his indictment, authorities said that they discovered “Freak Off supplies” — including “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.” Combs attorney Marc Agnifilo reportedly responded at the time by saying his client “buys in bulk” and “I think they have Costcos in every place where he has a home” (Costco reportedly responded to that by saying it doesn’t sell baby oil).

In the Daily Beast story, Ariel Mitchell, an attorney for Ashley Parham, who has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was the victim of a “violent gangbang style rape,” stated that based on her research the baby oil may have acted as a “conduit” for date rape drugs.

Combs’ lawyers have since mocked that as an “outlandish” conspiracy theory:

Some have even peddled in outlandish conspiracy theories. See, e.g., Tom Sykes, Diddy Spiked Baby Oil With Date Rape Drug: Accuser’s Lawyer, Daily Beast (Oct. 16, 2024), https://www.thedailybeast.com/diddy-spiked-baby-oil-with-date-rape-drug-ashley-parhams-lawyer-says/ (accuser’s lawyer claiming that, based on her “research,” “baby oil could be used as ‘a conduit’ for date rape drugs such as GHB or Rohypnol”).

A paragraph in Parham’s lawsuit does allege that she went “more and more limp” and was ultimately unable to “move her body” after she was allegedly “doused” with “oil/lubricant.”

“Unless and until the government identifies its prospective witnesses and victims, Mr. Combs has no choice but to assume that each accuser – no matter how frivolous or outlandish their allegations – is a prospective witness,” the defense concluded.

Read the filing here.

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