On the eve of Diddy’s federal trial for racketeering and sex trafficking, his legal team is very concerned about events on the other side of the Atlantic—in particular, the BBC’s just-aired documentary P Diddy: The Rise and Fall.
In a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Thursday (May 1), Teny Geragos, one of Diddy’s attorneys, expressed issues with a “deeply disturbing” interview with Lisa Bloom that ran as part of that series. Bloom is a lawyer who is representing a woman set to testify against the mogul during the trial. That witness has so far been unnamed in court documents, but Bloom is currently representing former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard in her civil suit against Diddy, which she filed last year. Bloom also represents an anonymous man accusing the Bad Boy head of sexual assault.
Geragos said that Bloom’s interview was done “to bolster her client’s credibility” in advance of in-court testimony. She stopped just short of saying that in giving the interview, Bloom had violated her own rules of professional conduct, but told Judge Arun Subramanian that she believed the attorney’s conduct “could” have breached that line. Geragos continued, saying that both Diddy’s team and the government had reached out to Bloom about her comments.
Geragos’ complaint follows a letter motion she and Diddy’s lead attorney Mark Agniflilo filed with Subramanian at the beginning of this week, expressing concerns about both Bloom and Cassie Ventura’s attorney Douglas Wigdor. Wigdor, they said, had made “unfairly damaging” public comments in March that could give a “misimpression” to potential jurors “that his opinion carries authoritative weight rather than simple one-sided advocacy for his self-interested client.” As for Bloom, they accused her of making “numerous sensationalist accusations” in a prior documentary, Peacock’s The Rise and Fall of Diddy.
Judge Subramanian told Geragos that if Bloom or Wigdor did anything that she believed violated either the rules of their profession or the court’s own rule about not doing anything to interfere with a fair trial (visible on page 94 of this document), to let him know. The court “will not tolerate” any behavior that would interfere with Diddy’s right to a fair trial, he said.
Bloom issued a statement to Complex about Diddy’s comments.
It reads: “How hypocritical that Mr. Combs and his attorneys, having made public statements many times, now want to silence me. Accusers and their attorneys have every right to speak out. I am very proud to represent my brave clients, Dawn Richard and John Doe, in litigation against Mr. Combs. I look forward to attending Mr. Combs’ upcoming criminal trial in New York and continuing to advocate for my clients consistent with the law and the ethical rules.”
Jury selection in Diddy’s trial will begin early Monday morning in Judge Subramanian’s Manhattan courtroom.
