In a new development over Sean “Diddy” Combs’ alleged sex trafficking case, the federal judge overseeing the trial has denied Combs’ request for a gag order against his alleged victims and their lawyers, ruling the demand “unprecedented’ and “unwarranted.”

As reported in an article from Billboard, attorneys for the embattled rapper claimed last month that “inflammatory extrajudicial statement” from victims and their attorneys were allegedly hurting his chances of a fair trial, but Judge Arun Subramanian ruled Friday (Nov. 8) that such “an extreme remedy” would allegedly threaten free speech.

“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”

“The unprecedented relief that Combs seeks on this motion is unwarranted,” the judge added.

Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo has argued that “the lawyers behind the civil cases had made ‘shockingly prejudicial and false allegations’ about him. Mr. Combs has a constitutional right to a fair trial, free from the influence of prejudicial statements in the press. These prospective witnesses and their lawyers have made numerous inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press”.

But in Friday’s decision, Judge Subramanian countered Agnifilo by ruling that “Combs was seeking ‘incredibly broad’ and would have sweeping First Amendment implications. Not all alleged victims will be participants in this case, and a blanket restriction on their speech will silence individuals who may never have anything to do with the proceedings here. A gag order … is an extreme remedy to be issued only as a last resort,” the judge wrote. “What Combs seeks goes even further.”

Separately on Friday, Combs’ lawyers also renewed their request that he be released from jail on a $50 million bond while he awaits trial. That request has been repeatedly denied since Combs was arrested, but the new filing cited the fact that former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries — another high-profile defendant accused of sex trafficking in New York — was immediately released on a $10 million bond after he was arrested last month.