Sean Diddy Combs absurdly compared himself to soon-to-be president Donald Trump in a desperate attempt to be bailed out of jail before Thanksgiving, TMZ reports.
The disgraced rapper’s lawyers cited Trump in a Monday court filing, pointing out the similarities between their respective legal situations.
Lawyers quoted an appellate decision from Trump’s election interference case regarding the First Amendment.
‘Only a significant and imminent threat to the administration of criminal justice will support restricting Mr. Trump’s speech,’ the DC Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in December, as recited in Sean Diddy Combs’ filing.
Lawyers claimed that Sean Diddy Combs has ‘a greater constitutional claim than other trial participants…to speak out against the prosecution and the criminal trial process that seek to take away his liberty.’
‘Accordingly, the Court should apply Trump’s heightened standard when considering Mr. Combs’ speech here,’ the filing asserted.
This legal briefing was in response to prosecutors accusing the alleged sex-trafficker of trying to influence potential jurors through a ‘public relations campaign’ on his children’s social media pages.
The allegation stemmed from seven of his children to posting a video marking his birthday on November 4.
His son Justin Dior Combs, 30, and six of Diddy’s other kids, including his baby daughter Love, two, sat around a birthday cake while Love sang ‘Happy Birthday.’
In the clip, Diddy could be heard speaking in the background, the first time his voice had been heard since his arrest.
Diddy said: ‘I love y’all so much. I can’t wait to see y’all. I just want to say I’m proud of y’all, especially the girls. I mean all of y’all but just for being strong.
‘Thank y’all for being strong and thank y’all for being by my side, supporting me. I love y’all.
‘I got the best family in the world. My birthday. I’m happy. Thank y’all for giving me this call. I love y’all’.
Combs allegedly used an app banned by the Bureau of Prisons called ContactMeASAP.com to arrange for these videos to be posted online, Business Insider reported.
Diddy allegedly paid off one witness after calling and texting her a staggering 128 times over four days from his jail cell to persuade her to support him.
Prosecutors also claimed he used other inmates’ phone accounts to make calls to people he is not allowed to speak with and to ‘avoid law enforcement monitoring.’
Diddy was federally charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution on September 17.
The rapper has been accused of arranging ‘Freak Offs,’ described as ‘elaborate and produced sex performances’ arranged and directed by Combs while he masturbated and often recorded them.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he coerced and abused women for years, aided by associates and employees, and silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Dozens of people, some of whom were minors at the time, have sued Diddy in civil courts for a string of offenses, which he also denies.
Combs is currently on his third bid to be granted bail and recently claimed his ‘reputation has been destroyed.’
In court on Friday, his lawyers argued he should be eligible for bail and stay in his New York City apartment on house arrest.
The fallen hip hop mogul said that the ‘allegations and aggressive and deceptive media tactics’ by prosecutors had already shredded his public image and only an acquittal could reverse that.
Diddy claimed the charges that he ran a decade-long criminal enterprise were ‘fictional’ and that prosecutors were putting a ‘theatrical spin’ on the truth.
He remains incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after being repeatedly denied bail.
Diddy is set to go to trial in May, 2025.