Sean “Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers are asking the judge in his federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial to declare a mistrial—again.
Diddy’s defense attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, filed a letter on Saturday that alleges prosecutorial misconduct. Shapiro said federal prosecutors presented “demonstrably false” evidence related to an allegation that the music mogul dangled Bryana Bongolan from a Los Angeles apartment’s 17th-floor balcony in 2016.
Diddy’s team said Bongolan, who is a longtime friend of the mogul’s ex-girlfriend and trial witness, Cassie Ventura, perjured herself during testimony.
Bongolian testified that she was able to document the injuries she received from the attack on Sept. 26, but Diddy’s lawyers displayed hotel receipts to the jury to show that Diddy was in New York from Sept. 24 to Sept. 29 of that year.
“The government knew or should have known this testimony was perjured, and that Ms. Bongolan could not possibly have been injured by Mr. Combs on a Los Angeles balcony in the early morning hours of September 26, or even the day before that,” Shapiro wrote.
In the letter, Diddy’s lawyers also alleged that federal prosecutors continued an “improper line of questioning” by asking the mogul’s former assistant, Mia, how she was able to prevent getting speeding tickets just by bringing up his name.
“It became apparent shortly thereafter, during the questioning of Mia the very next day, that in fact the government’s motive all along must have been to suggest that Mr. Combs had corrupt influence over the LA authorities when it tried to create the impression that he was responsible for the destruction of the fingerprints,” Diddy’s team argued.
As of the time of writing, the prosecution hasn’t responded to the mistrial request.
Diddy’s team have previously pushed for mistrials, in one instance accusing prosecutors of an “outrageous” question poised to Kid Cudi about his short relationship with Cassie and subsequent “drama” involving Diddy.
In another call for mistrial, Diddy’s lawyers said “prosecutorial misconduct” came about in a discussion of Los Angeles police’s response to fingerprints found during an alleged break-in of Kid Cudi’s home.
