The Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking investigation has a number of striking similarities to the case against R. Kelly, the fallen R&B singer’s attorney said, but with one major caveat – Combs could end up sharing big names in a desperate attempt to regain his freedom.
In a wide-ranging interview, Kelly’s attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, told Fox News Digital how Combs faces an almost impossible task to beat the charges against him, given the feds are using laws typically reserved for mobsters to go after Combs. The same laws were used to convict R. Kelly, she said.
Blank Becker, a Michigan-based former sex crimes prosecutor, also said R. Kelly’s defense only got to see the prosecution’s evidence on the day of the trial, with Combs likely to face the same scenario.
She said some allegations made against R. Kelly were false, but those in his inner circle who could have testified in his defense bailed on him for fear of being caught up in a federal web and prosecuted themselves. She labeled the desertion of Kelly as “a dehumanizing feeling.”
Diddy was indicted last month on federal sex crimes charges. (Getty Images)
She sees a similar trend in the Combs case – in that Combs’ A-list inner circle appears to be abandoning him too – and she said the music mogul may decide to give those people up to help his case. She alluded to a video Combs posted online before he was arrested in which he blurts out high-profile names in an apparent guise of his birthday guest list.
“What that is, and I’ve talked about this with R. Kelly, [Combs] is saying, ‘Listen, guys, none of y’all are calling me back, none of y’all are listening, none of y’all want to talk to me now, well guess what, I’m going down… but y’all are gonna go down with me,’” Blank Becker said.
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Blank Becker said Kelly’s inner circle consisted of lifelong non-celebrity friends whereas Combs rolled with the “best of the best” in entertainment, music and sports and so if Combs decides to “snitch,” the fallout could be earth-shattering.
“R. Kelly kept his grassroots friends, people that had worked for him. It wasn’t celebrities, he didn’t branch out and do things because his gift, for lack of better words, was singing… P. Diddy surrounded himself always with the best of the best. The actors who are the best actors, the elite,” Blank Becker says.
Nicole Blank Becker speaking to the media at Brooklyn Federal Court in New York on Aug. 18, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“I would say that it is very possible, when Diddy recognizes that they have as much information as they do – all of which he is not going to even know for quite some time – he may be trying to figure out, ‘Hey, I give you this info, what’s that going to do for me?’ And I wouldn’t be surprised if those types of negotiations occur and continue.
“It’s just so fascinating to watch it, not know what it is, and then all of a sudden we can kind of put the pieces together.”
Blank Becker said prosecutors who are charging Combs don’t necessarily need the big names to publicly testify against him, but the feds may have been in contact with those celebrities already to build their case.
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“To take Diddy down, they don’t need any superstars, but obviously, they’re trying to dot all their i’s and cross their t‘s to make sure that what they’re claiming is real, even though I can tell you that whatever you see in the media or you see in the news, a lot of it isn’t true,” Blank Becker said. “And I can tell you that because I was obviously on the inside with R. Kelly’s case, and I would just sit there half the time and be like laughing because it’s just so not true.”
Blank Becker said she hopes to reveal more about Kelly’s case at a later date. For instance, she claims that a police officer illegally recorded Kelly while he was on the phone with one of his girlfriends and that the attorney hopes this triggers a retrial of his New York case.
Kelly, known for smash hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Ignition,” was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 after he was found guilty by a federal jury in New York of racketeering charges, including illegal sex with minors and the sexual exploitation of minors.
The three-time Grammy Award-winning artist was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 on charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor. He has appealed both cases.
R. Kelly leaves the Daley Center after a hearing in his child support case on May 8, 2019, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Marton, File)
Combs, meanwhile, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution in an indictment unsealed on Sept. 17.
If found guilty, Combs, who has also won three Grammy Awards, faces a minimum of 15 years behind bars or a maximum sentence of life in prison. Combs’ federal trial is set to begin on May 5.
Blank Becker said Kelly’s case paved the way for how moguls like Combs are being prosecuted. Kelly, like Combs, was charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – a law known as RICO – which she said is usually used for prosecuting mobsters.
Authorities allege Combs ran a criminal enterprise through his businesses, including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises and Combs Global, among others. He used “firearms, threats of violence, coercion, and verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse” to fulfill his sexual desires, according to the unsealed indictment obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Blank Becker said the RICO charges were a novel way to prosecute Kelly, and as such, it hampered her team’s ability to defend him given the lack of case law.
“We didn’t have a script, we didn’t have case law that we could look at because the RICO charge itself, I mean, that was for mobsters… that were affecting commerce over state lines. That’s what the RICO charges are usually used for,” Blank Becker said.
“Basically, what it means is he is the head of an enterprise and this is how they’re going to start getting everybody else who is similarly situated in this type of architecture, right. They’re going to just plug people in.”
She also said prosecutors at the federal level are only required to present their evidence just before the trial, and this tips the scales heavily against the defendant. She said Combs’ defense should reach out to her about how to prepare for the case, given the almost unchartered waters they are navigating.
A close-up of Diddy next to a recent courtroom sketch. (Getty Images | Reuters/Jane Rosenberg)
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“We were coming into court… just even before the trial started, getting hundreds, if not thousands of pages of discovery… they just pile it on,” Blank Becker said. “Now, fortunately, I think we might have got them in the morning but who the heck has got time to do all the proper research in the morning?”
“So I would tell [Combs’ team] that there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and… I would talk to them to try and figure out how the heck do we fight this somewhat unknown battle.”
She said that defendants, whether the public thinks they are innocent or guilty, are not afforded time to analyze the evidence put forward against them. At this point, Combs is not aware of his accusers and earlier this month he filed a motion that they be publicly identified so he can prepare a proper defense.
“We’re all supposed to be working under the same fundamental values, right?” Blank Becker asked. “Innocent until proven guilty. I with my whole heart, unfortunately, feel as though it certainly has become you are guilty until proven innocent and that the federal rule does not help that statement.”
She said there was no way Combs was ever going to be released on bond given that in Kelly’s case, the fallen star “offered everything” to the courts for his release but was denied.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was honored with the lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards in 2022. (Getty Images)
Instead, Combs is still incarcerated at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same facility where Kelly was held and which has a troubled history for violence and harsh care.
And Combs, like Kelly, is being held at the jail’s “special housing units” because of his status.
“They are put in there and they say it’s for their safety. It is not for their safety, although obviously that’s the guise behind it. It’s to mentally break them down and that is exactly what happens,” Blank Becker said.
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“Literally, there’s a light on you 24 hours, that isn’t keeping someone safe. They don’t get their commissary like they’re supposed to. They don’t get anything. It’s a nightmare.
“You can say what you want about what people believe he did or what people believe Diddy did… But the truth is, we’re freakin’ humans and no human should be treated that way. And so, I absolutely saw the difference [in Kelly’s mental health] during the whole process. It was awful.”
Kelly is currently in a federal prison in North Carolina.
Combs’ attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment for this story.