Diddy to appear in NYC court today on sex trafficking charges where he will demand release on bail and spring trial

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will demand he is released on bail when he returns to court today.

The rapper, 54, has spent three weeks behind bars after his initial two requests were  denied.

He was charged with a host of sex trafficking and racketeering offenses following his September 16 arrest. 

Since then upwards of 120 victims have already come forward, but Diddy maintains his innocence and is demanding a trial as early as spring.

On Thursday afternoon, he will face a judge in a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom where he is expected to receive an outline of the anticipated timeline for the rest of his case.

His high-powered legal team are gearing up for what will be a blockbuster trial, and Diddy ‘asserted his right to a speedy trial’ in a filing seen by DailyMail.com to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

He intends to request a trial date for April or May 2025, the filing states.

Diddy’s lawyers have also filed a motion for an evidentiary hearing, accusing the government of leaking sensitive information from the case.

It’s understood concerns have been raised about how surveillance footage of Diddy beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel was made public. 

Diddy’s attorney said: ‘A series of unlawful government leaks, which have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.’ 

Diddy is seeking access to a mountain of data the prosecution has seized since they raided his Miami and Los Angeles homes in March 2024. 

In all, prosecutors are copying more than 40 electronic devices belonging to the star.

‘Discovery in this case is voluminous, totaling several terabytes of electronic material,’ the government argued in the latest filing.

There are 1,000 gigabytes per terabyte of data, meaning the government is currently sifting through thousands of gigabytes worth of potentially crucial information. 

This includes cellphones, laptops, tablets, hard drives, cloud accounts from both Diddy and third parties.

Additionally, prosecutors are scouring business records from financial institutions, phone companies, hotels and airlines as they build their case.

It comes amid revelations Diddy’s mother Janice Combs and twin daughters visited him at his Brooklyn jail this week, according to TMZ. 

Diddy is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center after his request for bail was denied. 

The publication described the reunion as ’emotional.’

Lawyers for Diddy said: ‘We understand that the government seized a significant amount of Mr. Combs’ electronic devices and data pursuant to search warrants that were executed on March 25, 2024.

‘The government also seized additional devices belonging to Mr. Combs at the time of his arrest about three weeks ago. 

‘The timely production of these materials is critical to Mr. Combs’ ability to prepare his defense.’ 

His lawyers argued that because the devices in question ‘belong to Mr Combs, their  production should not be delayed by the government’s initial review for responsiveness and privilege.

‘The government has indicated they will be able to produce these devices in the next 30 days.’

The government has argued it will take days to even copy the data from the devices ‘due to the volume of materials’, but has vowed to ‘make rolling productions within the next thirty days of hard drives that were seized from the defendant.’

In the filing, the government said it hopes to hand over all discovery by the end of the year. 

An attorney representing Diddy’s accusers said his phone was ringing off the hook with people wanting to share their own horror stories.

In all, he has about 120 clients – 25 of whom say they were minors at the time the alleged offending took place. 

He’s also gearing up to name other high-profile people who could soon be caught up in the allegations.

‘We want to make sure if we name individuals beyond Mr Combs that we have done our homework because it is going to create a firestorm, and we understand that.

‘If you were there in the room, participated, watched it happen and didn’t say anything or helped cover it up, in my view, you have a problem.’ 

Buzbee vowed to pursue the cases against any offender ‘aggressively’, and said the scope was broad. 

In the wake of his arrest, all of Diddy’s celebrity friendships have been under scrutiny. Photographs from his infamous parties have resurfaced, with guests and witnesses speaking out about the debauchery which often took place.

Buzbee previously said people would be ‘shocked’ by the names he’s heard during the course of his investigation. 

Listen to DailyMail.com’s in depth podcast concerning the allegations now.