Evidence federal prosecutors obtained through searches of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami and elsewhere must be suppressed because the warrants that authorized those searches were unconstitutional, defense attorneys argued Sunday in a new court filing.
The defense argued the warrant applications for the Diddy’s houses, iCloud accounts, phones and hotel room were overbroad, excluded facts that could have been favorable to Combs and “presented a grossly distorted picture of reality.”
The heavily redacted defense motion does not publicly reveal the specifics of what prosecutors allegedly omitted but said the warrant applications eliminated important context that the magistrate judge who approved them should have seen, including about a certain witness that the defense contended had reason to fabricate and embellish.
“But it worked — the government got its warrants, leaked damaging information, and then executed its military-style raids at Combs’s residences,” defense attorneys said in the filing. “Here, rather than giving the reviewing magistrate a fair summary, the government hid exculpatory evidence to bolster its case.”
The defense said some of the most salacious details recounted in the search warrant applications came from an unnamed Producer-1 whose accusations “were never credible.” What Producer-1 told investigators is redacted but the defense said he “had relayed stories about his time working for Combs.”
The motion said the government does not plan to call Producer-1 to testify.