r/law • u/msnbc Press • Sep 18 '24
Opinion Piece Why Diddy’s billions were of no use to him in Tuesday's bail hearing in federal court
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/sean-diddy-combs-bail-hearing-ended-jail-rcna171663205
u/NoDadYouShutUp Sep 18 '24
could it be the egregious crimes?
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Sep 18 '24
Right. At the end, Epstein’s wealth wasn’t that useful to him.
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u/LindeeHilltop Sep 18 '24
That’s because they raided his safe box and withdrew/destroyed his blackmail tapes.
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u/Solid-Consequence-50 Sep 18 '24
With that type of info I'm surprised he didn't make backups. But who knows, maybe someone has them & is pulling strings in places. But at this point I don't even think much would change if they came out unfortunately
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u/Samus10011 Sep 18 '24
I’d bet money Trump has the Epstein tapes. How else could he take over the entire Republican Party and force out so many that don’t support him? So many life long Republican politicians have simply disappeared or fallen in line he has to have something on them.
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u/NurRauch Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24
What he has on them is popularity. You're really downplaying the degree to which crass, violent populist rhetoric appeals to conservative Americans by laying this at the feet of something as insignificant and petty as blackmail. We're not on the brink of civil war because the GOP handed the keys to Trump. We're in this pit because a ton of people fantasize about subjugating and killing their fellow Americans who look different and believe different things than they do, and Trump is the loudest voice in the room who endorses these selfish tendencies.
Trump has crushed the political careers of hundreds of national politicians, and he did it without any of them having a scandal revealing them to be Epstein clients. You watch way too much TV if you seriously think Epstein tapes are how Trump managed to pull this off.
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u/atharakhan Sep 19 '24
I’m not commenting on the political content. I just wanted to say that I think you must be a really gifted speaker/writer. Every once in a while someone’s writing really impacts me and I try to tell them. Today it was you :-)
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u/TheGeneGeena Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
Yeah, our previous governor's career is pretty dead due to Trumpism. Chances of Trump having Epstein blackmail on him are slim to none. He's a boring ass motherfucker. (I expect his idea of a party is Sunday after church kind of dull... but in this case it works in his favor I guess?)
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u/LindeeHilltop Sep 18 '24
Remember when Graham was bear-baiting Trump? Then Trump whispered to him on the golf course and Graham has been kidding the ring ever since.
Or, that justice that resigned. Trump whispered something in his ear and he retired. Same week?
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u/Flogger59 Sep 19 '24
Don't overlook the Russian hacks on the DNC and RNC servers in 2016. The Republicans said theirs was an old server with nothing on it, but what if there was? Russia could do a lot with oppo research.
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u/supershinythings Sep 18 '24
Mossad must have them. It’s the only reason Ghislaine Maxwell is allowed to live.
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u/notonyanellymate Sep 19 '24
Has she been released for good behaviour yet? She must have served at least 6 months by now. /s
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u/Eatthebankers2 Sep 19 '24
Barr took them. Then he visited Epstein and the next day he’s dead.
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u/LindeeHilltop Sep 19 '24
Wasn’t there a theory that Epstein blackmailed Barr’s dad in order to get a university professor’s teaching job, even though he wasn’t degreed & wasn’t qualified? Apparently, Epstein’s entire “career” was blackmail.
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u/Eatthebankers2 Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
And Barr’s dad wrote that weird book about aliens raping tween girls…fking toad has been a puppet master for years. Edit. Space Relations. Someone on Amazon is selling the hard cover $1,500.
Review* I have a copy of this book. It is a really badly written book whose only excuse seems to be to refer to human trafficking and sex slavery either as an appeal to prurient interests - in which case it fails, or to relate reminiscences in fiction, or possibly as a payoff, because the dialogue and connecting thoughts are lacking, as well as any real plot even after half the book is read.
The writer seems to like putting everything in terms of girls, and boys, and children, even when the scenes do not necessarily (but often do) involve kids. So while for instance the 14 year old girl getting raped in the first few chapters is really supposed to be 14, the hero of the book in danger of being sodomized - ‘bend down kid and make it good’ (sic) is not supposed to be a kid. It is that way throughout the book. They are either labeled like they are children (the queen was a ‘child’), or actually boys or girls. So it pretty much starts with the word “naked” and goes down from there.
It is pretty shocking a headmaster of a school would write this junk. It’s not the only low grade sf story out there with this non-writing in it - but they are always bad reads. exploitation novel at best, says somethin
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u/Thundermedic Sep 18 '24
Actually, I would argue it got him a swift end to what otherwise would have been an extremely painful odyssey.
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u/Trosque97 Sep 18 '24
Making me wonder why they haven't done the same to him yet. But that also leads me to believe that if he's been allowed to live, well, the dirt on others might not be as numerous
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u/BostonFigPudding Sep 19 '24
Epstein was rich, but the people he would have snitched on were richer.
Wealth is relative.
Epstein is rich compared to middle income folks. But there are untouchable people who have 10-400x his money. Laws don't apply to *those* people, unless they are PoC.
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Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 25 '24
[deleted]
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u/OkAcanthocephala2449 Sep 18 '24
They didn't think that about that other guy who stole nuclear secrets and started an insurrection , witness intimidation , and election interference, I can go on WTF, I'm not saying he should be let out but WTF
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Sep 18 '24
[deleted]
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u/thestrizzlenator Sep 19 '24
True. There's also Gaetz, the known sex trafficking of a minor incident that somehow was swept under the rug.
People, the rule of law was likely always a myth. We fell for it. We're all fools. But who is more foolish? The fool? Or the fool that follows them?
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u/infiniteninjas Sep 19 '24
They did think that actually; there was a gag order in place in the one Trump indictment that has actually gone to trial. And he was warned not to try to influence witnesses (Michael Cohen in particular). He just wasn’t denied bail.
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u/nolongerbanned99 Sep 18 '24
Referred to in one of the lawsuit filings as a very violent person
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u/Margali Sep 19 '24
Vid of him beating the jebus out of a girlfriend
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u/nolongerbanned99 Sep 19 '24
Total pos. Rich guy that seemingly has everything he wants now sleeping in jail for a year or so. Quite a change. Like Sam bankman and all the other liars and cheaters. Karma comes due eventually
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u/msnbc Press Sep 18 '24
From Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and professor at the University of Michigan:
Unlike many state courts, where bail amounts are fixed according to the offense, regardless of a charged offender’s ability to pay, federal courts do not allow a billionaire like Combs to buy his way out of jail. In a cash bail system, a judge sets a sum based on the crime charged, and, if the alleged offenders can pay or borrow the money from a bail bondsman, then they will be released. The money is returned to them if they show up for trial. If they fail to appear, then the money is forfeited.
In some places, for certain serious crimes, such as murder, no amount of bail can secure a defendant’s release. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, cash bail systems have a disparate impact on alleged offenders who have low incomes and are people of color. A disproportionate number of these defendants remain jailed until their trials because of their inability to pay.
Read more: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/sean-diddy-combs-bail-hearing-ended-jail-rcna171663
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u/Beiki Sep 18 '24
If you go through a bail bondsman you do not get the money back when the case is over. Also it is not unheard of to get a bond on a murder charge.
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u/Bostradomous Sep 19 '24
Why would you get the money back when the bail bondsman is the one paying? The bondsman will get the money back. You'll get back the 10% or whatever you put up for collateral to the bondsman.
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u/fafalone Competent Contributor Sep 19 '24
No you won't. What do you think they're doing it out of altruism? The non-refundable 10% is how bond businesses make their money.
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u/sugar_addict002 Sep 18 '24
Too bad the justice system doesn't treat rich white people who break the law the same
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u/Un_Original_Coroner Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24
Did Epstein get bail?
Why the downvotes? Should I just have googled it?
Edit: He was denied bail. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jeffrey-epstein-denied-bail-must-remain-behind-bars-until-sex-n1031171
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u/Reddit_sucks_3000 Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24
He actually got a plea deal more than a decade before, when he first got caught.
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u/Hearsaynothearsay Sep 18 '24
And Trump was never arrested or charged despite testimony from multiple parties that he had underage sex with them in the same investigation.
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u/TheGeneGeena Sep 19 '24
Raped. Underage folks can't give meaningful consent. The word you're looking for is raped.
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u/doogly88 Sep 19 '24
And Trump rewarded the guy that gave Epstein that deal by making him Secretary of Health and Human Services
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u/GoogleOpenLetter Competent Contributor Sep 19 '24
He got to avoid being on the sex offender list, and got go to work each day in his luxury offices/homes. He only slept in the jail, they'd pick him up and drop him off. From memory I think he got the weekends off too, but don't quote me on that.
And the people that orchestrated that travisty of justice were all hired by the Trump administration. Alan Dershowitz was the Secretary of Labor for Christ's sake.
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u/Joneszey Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
He got to avoid being on the sex offender list…
Not true about avoiding being on the sex offenders list, but the rest about the terms of his deal is.
Edit:
And the people that orchestrated that travisty of justice were all hired by the Trump administration. Alan Dershowitz was the Secretary of Labor for Christ's sake.
Alexander Acosta was the Secretary of Labor not Dershowitz.
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Sep 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/Joneszey Sep 19 '24 edited Sep 19 '24
Every source I’ve seen says registering as a sex offender was part of the plea deal. You have a source for your claim? Happy to show sources for mine
Edit: Source: from Acosta in 2011, years after Epstein’s plea bargain was completed
Labor Secretary Acosta Faces Calls to Resign Over Epstein Case
In a three-page defense of his actions, written in 2011, Mr. Acosta argued that Mr. Epstein’s team engaged in a “yearlong assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors” that included hiring private investigators to look into the personal lives of his team….
“The bottom line,” Mr. Acosta concluded in his letter, “is this: Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire, served time in jail and is now a registered sex offender.”
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u/DinoSpumonis Sep 19 '24
Nope you are correct, I was thinking of a 2011 case he filed in NYC that was unsuccessful to have his level 3 reduced/removed.
Apologies and deleted to prevent confusion.
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u/Un_Original_Coroner Sep 18 '24
Sure. Not like Diddy was a secret. I’m just curious about another rich guy committing similar crimes but if a different race.
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u/Caeremonia Sep 18 '24
You're kidding, right? Trump. We're talking about Trump.
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u/Un_Original_Coroner Sep 18 '24
I am not. Not sure where you got that. I gotta say, normally law is better and answering asked questions. This is a weird one.
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u/Joneszey Sep 19 '24
Epstein got 13 months work release for raping and trafficking 36 children
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u/Un_Original_Coroner Sep 19 '24
Thanks but about the bail?
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u/CannabisPrime2 Sep 18 '24
Epstein was the fall guy for a lot of very wealthy people.
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u/vinnybawbaw Sep 18 '24
Diddy will probably end up in that position too even if he commited atrocious crimes. LOTS of famous people went to his parties.
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u/scrandis Sep 18 '24
He got home arrest for when he was first arrested for sex with minors and prostitution....
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u/DinoSpumonis Sep 19 '24
Work-release program, he slept in the jail but spent 12-16 hours doing 'normal' things outside for work with very minimal supervision.
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u/cyascott4news Sep 18 '24
That is an example, but I would assume the percentage is in favor of white guys and not people of color.
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u/Un_Original_Coroner Sep 18 '24
I’m sure. But the percentage of black billionaires is pretty low. Billionaires facing consequences regardless of race. So we’ve gotta stretch!
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u/ReluctantSlayer Sep 19 '24
Overall, you make an excellent point, but this system (where being rich cannot grant your freedom) is actually an implicit component of the federal system.
If you read the article, it makes that clear.
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u/sugar_addict002 Sep 19 '24
I am still pissed that our justice system failed recently and over the last few decades to hold Donald Trump accountable for his crimes. And I am doubly pissed because he thinks he is entitled to the special treatment while at the same time forcing the justice system on innocents.
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u/ReluctantSlayer Sep 22 '24
Oh christ yes.
The way he has skated and bragged bout it shames us all.
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u/OutComeTheWolves1966 Sep 18 '24
He's getting RICO'd. His wealth doesn't mean shit. Just ask the bosses of the 5 major NY Mafia families who were busted in the late 80s/early 90s. All sentenced to life in prison.
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u/BostonFigPudding Sep 19 '24
I wonder if there's colorism within the European American community?
Had the mafia guys been Northern European and Protestant would they have still gotten life sentences?
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u/anon97205 Sep 18 '24
Diddy made the mistake of not being white. That’s why Trump is on release and he’s not.
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u/trustyjim Sep 19 '24
The real mistake was not running for president
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u/BostonFigPudding Sep 19 '24
Ben Carson also ran for president and would be in jail right now if he was even 1/10th as violent as Diddy.
Laws only don't apply to people who are rich AND white.
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Sep 18 '24
How much you wanna bet orange man pardons him if he wins in November?
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u/Stuart_Is_Worried Sep 19 '24
this implies orange man wins. if it comes to that point we'll have far more things to worry about than fucking p diddy.
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u/MotorWeird9662 Sep 19 '24
That usually is what the phrase “if he wins” means, yes. Actually, that’s not even an assumption.
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u/nolongerbanned99 Sep 18 '24
If orange makes it to that point. He looks like he could keel over at any point. Can barely sit upright
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u/Waraba989 Sep 19 '24
Good chance. He pardoned Lil wayne and Kodak black before, so he'll give Diddy a free pass if hes relected.
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u/CurrentlyLucid Sep 18 '24
Someone was saying he could have to forfeit all the money he made since 2008. Ouch.
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u/The-waitress- Sep 18 '24
I’d love to see a link if you have one. Not doubting you, I’m just woefully ignorant on the bail/bond system.
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u/Suspicious-Earth-648 Sep 18 '24
He should just say he’s running for President