Sean 'Diddy' Combs appeals to get out of jail ahead of federal sex crimes trial

Sean "Diddy" Combs is requesting to be released from jail ahead of his trial for federal sex crimes charges.

The embattled media mogul's attorneys filed documents Tuesday to appeal his jail stay, arguing that federal prosecutors' prior reasoning for his detention "was based on speculation."

"What is extreme and unusual about this case is that Mr. Combs was detained immediately after he was charged, even though he has been in the spotlight his entire life, with many of his purported antics and episodes being widely reported in the press and known to law enforcement authorities," his attorney Alexandra Shapiro said in a legal filing in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Sean 'Diddy' Combs appeals judge denialof his release from jail on $50 million bond

Combs was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on Sept. 16 and arraigned on sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution charges the following day. He has been incarcerated in the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since then and has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty on all federal criminal charges, despite mounting civil lawsuits over the past year.

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Last week, on Sept. 30, Combs' legal team submitted a notice of appeal on the matter, the first step in an appeals process. In her legal filing Tuesday, Shapiro claimed that the possibility of obstruction laid out by federal prosecutors was based on "untested allegations about communications with witnesses in civil cases and communications initiated by supposed witnesses and not Mr. Combs."

Shapiro added that Combs "poses no conceivable" flight risk and cited his pre-arrest behavior, telling the court "he immediately directed" his attorneys to contact federal prosecutors in March when he "understood he was the target of a serious federal investigation."

According to court filings obtained by USA TODAY last week, the Bad Boy Records mogul was seeking an appeals court judgment that would overturn Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr.'s Sept. 18 decision to deny his request to be released from jail. At the time, his attorneys say they proposed a "robust bail package" which included a $50 million bond.

Other conditions of the proposed bail package by Combs' attorneys included travel restrictions in the Southern District of Florida, where Combs' home in Miami is located, and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York as well as home detention with GPS monitoring. The package also involved the surrendering of passports from Combs as well as five other family members and continued attempts to sell his private plane.

His attorney Shapiro called Combs "hardly a risk of flight," arguing in the legal filing that "he is a 54-year-old father of seven, a U.S. citizen, an extraordinarily successful artist, businessman, and philanthropist, and one of the most recognizable people on earth."

Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bailafter pleading not guilty to sex trafficking charges

Shapiro added: "The sensationalism surrounding his arrest has distorted the bail analysis: Mr. Combs was not released pending trial, even though he offered to comply with restrictive conditions that would have prevented any conceivable risk of flight or danger."

Combs previously lost two attempts to be released on bail

Before this latest appeal, Combs lost two bids to be released on bail. The first judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, sided with U.S. attorneys' argument that Combs posed a risk if he were to be released for home detention.

After Carter upheld Tarnofsky's Sept. 17 ruling against Combs, Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs' lawyers, vowed to appeal the decision.

"I told Mr. Combs I'm going to try and get his case to trial as quickly as possible," he said outside the courthouse on Sept. 18. "I'm going to try to minimize the amount of time he spends in very very difficult and I believe inhumane housing conditions in the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Detention Facility."