Sean Combs honors his son Christian Combs during the REVOLT Music Conference at the Fontainebleau Hotel and Resort on Saturday, October 18, 2014, in Miami Beach, Florida. Image: Marc Serota/Invision for REVOLT

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors say lawyers for Sean “Diddy” combs They are trying to “hijack” the music mogul’s criminal case by asking a judge to force early disclosure of evidence, including the identities of his accusers.

Prosecutors urged a judge in papers filed late Wednesday to reject the requests, saying the effort to reveal the identities of potential witnesses, in particular, was “blatantly inadequate.”

They said it was inappropriate for defense attorneys to request disclosure of the victims’ identities and details about other evidence that could advance the government’s case.

Defense attorneys also called for a gag order to prevent accusers’ attorneys from making public comments and have claimed that government leaks to the media have threatened the rapper’s chances for a fair trial.

Prosecutors said the requests were “a thinly veiled attempt to restrict the government’s evidence at this early stage of the case and to hijack the criminal proceedings so that the defendant can respond to civil lawsuits. This demand should be rejected outright, especially in light of the risk it poses to the safety of witnesses.”

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Prosecutors added: “As the defendant well knows, there is no legal authority for his attempt to co-opt this criminal process to defend himself against civil litigation.”

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Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “The Four: Battle For Stardom” at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

Combs, 54, has remained in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest on Sept. 16, awaiting a trial scheduled to begin May 5.

Part of the reason a judge rejected a bail package suggested by his attorneys was that it risked obstructing justice and witness tampering.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of coercing and abusing women for years, with the help of associates and employees.

Prosecutors said that since at least 2008, Combs participated in a racketeering conspiracy, using his power and prestige in the entertainment industry to force women to engage in prolonged sexual acts with male sex workers in what was known as “Freak “Offs.”

They said he used videos of the attacks as collateral to threaten victims, and said he also physically assaulted women and others by hitting, punching, dragging and kicking them.

Prosecutors said defense claims that the government leaked to CNN a video of Combs assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway on March 5, 2016, were not true.

They said defense attorneys were involved in a “blatant attempt to suppress damning evidence against him: a video of him violently beating a victim.”

In May, Combs released a video statement saying he took “full responsibility” for his actions in the video against Cassie, an R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. She sued him last November, alleging years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. The lawsuit was resolved the next day.

“I felt disgusted when I did it. Now I’m disgusted,” Combs said in the video.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura has done.

Combs also faces civil lawsuits from several men and women who allege that Combs sexually assaulted them over the past quarter century after being drugged.

Sean Combs arrives at the Pre-Grammy Gala and greets industry icons at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, January 25, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP, File)

Combs’ lawyers have asked that the accusers and their attorneys be ordered not to make public statements, saying they have already made “numerous inflammatory extrajudicial statements designed to assassinate Mr. Combs’ character in the press.”

More than a dozen lawsuits filed in Manhattan federal court have been assigned to different judges, leading to varying initial rulings on whether the allegations were sufficiently made.

In one case, a judge ruled Wednesday that a Tennessee woman who alleges Combs raped her in 2004 when she was 19 must proceed without anonymity or not at all. The judge wrote that defendants have the right to investigate those who sue them and the public has the right to know who uses the courts.

An attorney for Combs did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.