NEW YORK — Embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has appealed a judge’s decision to keep him locked up in jail as he fights federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, arguing the decision relied on witness tampering allegations by the prosecution based on “exaggerated rhetoric.”

Combs has been incarcerated since his Sept. 16 arrest at Brooklyn’s scandal-plagued Metropolitan Detention Center, where high-profile inmates, including convicted R&B singer and sexual predator R. Kelly, crypto conman Sam Bankman-Fried and former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell awaited their trials.

“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,” Combs’ lawyers wrote to the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court on Tuesday.

“Indeed, hardly a risk of flight, 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.”

Soon after the music mogul was detained at his initial court appearance, a Manhattan Federal Court judge declined a request to release Combs on a $50 million bond package that his attorneys said would see him detained at his Florida mansion, barred from using the phone and internet, and monitored by a Manhattan-based security firm.

Judge Andrew Carter said no conditions could protect against the “clear and convincing evidence on dangerousness both for obstruction and witness tampering, as well as danger more generally” alleged by the prosecution, including that Combs had sought to contact witnesses.

In a failed bid last month, Combs’ defense offered to secure his bond with his $48 million Miami home, his mother’s home and signatures by seven relatives. The Grammy Award winner said he’d submit to routine drug testing and only communicate with people who are not considered co-conspirators.

Tuesday’s appeal argues that Combs demonstrated that he wasn’t a flight risk by preparing to surrender on the sweeping charges and that concerns raised about him obstructing justice were speculative. His lawyers described his contact with the potential witnesses as “minimally relevant or entirely innocuous,” claiming one of two people served with subpoenas Combs is alleged to have communicated with reached out to him, and that he refrained from further contact after notifying his defense team.

“He traveled to New York to surrender because he knew he was going to be indicted,” Combs’ lawyers Alexandra Shapiro and Jason Driscoll wrote. “He took extraordinary steps to demonstrate that he intended to face and contest the charges, not flee.”

“There is no reason 24/7 monitoring by trained third-party former state and federal law enforcement officers could not prevent obstruction,” they later wrote, “particularly where the defendant will not have electronic devices and thus could not directly contact any witnesses.”

The larger-than-life rap mogul is accused of forcing women to participate in highly orchestrated, wild and violent sexual performances with male commercial sex workers that he directed and often videotaped, called “freak offs,” for the better part of two decades.

He’s pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation for purposes of prostitution — charges carrying a potential decadeslong sentence — and claims his alleged victims gave consent.

Prosecutors allege the Bad Boy Records founder demanded unquestioning loyalty and relied on his employees, vast resources and the influence of his “multifaceted business empire” to operate a criminal enterprise whose members participated in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. His employees also allegedly assisted in “locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee his abuse.”

“Freak offs” sometimes lasted for days and included copious amounts of sedative drugs, like Xanax and GHB, “to keep the victims obedient and compliant,” the case states, and Combs often masturbated during the recorded sessions that were sometimes used as blackmail.

The sessions were so extreme that Combs “and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use,” the indictment reads.

Victims were allegedly flown to Combs’ location and locked in his homes and hotel rooms in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Miami and various foreign countries between 2008 and earlier this year. Agents seized three AR-15 semiautomatic rifles with defaced serial numbers and a drum magazine from his residences across the country in March.

The feds say victims sometimes needed days or weeks to “hide” and heal from their injuries and that Combs’ depravity and violence “was recurrent and widely known,” leading to widespread speculation about famous names that may arise in the case.

Combs is expected to appear in court on Thursday for a pretrial conference. In a joint filing Wednesday, his lawyers and prosecutors said they were in near-daily contact about evidence disclosures, much of it contained on electronic devices seized from the mogul’s homes.

Combs’ attorneys said they plan to ask the judge to set a trial date for April or May 2025. Federal prosecutors did not take a position on the scheduling request.

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.