Sean Combs’s defense team is asking the court to allow electronic reproduction of nine explicit “Freak Off” videos they say demonstrate the embattled music mogul’s innocence by depicting only sexual activity between consenting adults.
The request to modify the protective order came in a Tuesday letter from Combs’ attorneys to United States District Judge Arnn Subramanian that was obtained by TheWrap. The videos in question are currently restricted to in-person supervised viewing, which the defense team says they did on Nov. 20.
Combs’ attorneys argue it cannot properly evaluate, enhance, or use the evidence in trial preparation without making electronic copies. The videos are said to depict private, consensual activity between Combs and “Victim I,” and “contradict allegations of coercion, maniuplation … and disprove any elements of violence, incapacitation, or sex trafficking.”
Prosecutors have fought reproduction of the videos, citing privacy concerns for the alleged victim, who initially provided them to investigators.
“Having reviewed these videos, it is now abundantly clear that they confirm Mr. Combs’s innocence, and that their full exculpatory value cannot be investigated and used unless they are electronically produced,” the attorneys wrote.
They also sought to dispel speculation that the videos showed graphic affairs with celebrities and other craven behaviors.
“Moreover, contrary to innumerable sensationalistic media reports, the videos do not depict sex parties,” they wrote. “There are no secret cameras, no orgies, no other celebrities involved, no underground tunnels, no minors, and not so much as a hint of coercion or violence. Far from the government’s lurid descriptions, the videos show adults having consensual sex, plain and simple.”
The lawyers even sought to shame the media and prosecution for assuming the worst about the nature of the activity.
“Any fair-minded viewer of the videos will quickly conclude that the prosecution of Mr. Combs is both sexist and puritanical,” they wrote. “It is sexist because the government’s theory perpetuates stereotypes of female victimhood and lack of agency. The prosecution reflects a paternalistic view that the government is here to protect women, who cannot be trusted to make their own decisions about sex, and are not capable of consenting to sex that the prosecutors view as outside the ‘norm.’”
Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. His multiple attempts to be released on bail have been rejected and his federal trial is set for May 5, 2025.
