Last week, on the day he was sued for at least the ninth time in less than a year, Sean Combs was determined to send a message to one of his protégés, prosecutors said in his federal criminal case.

The music mogul, who was indicted this week by a federal grand jury on sex trafficking and organized crime charges, allegedly called or texted Kalenna Harper 58 times over four days.

The publicity began, prosecutors said, the same day that another of his protégés, Dawn Richard, Harper’s bandmate in the now-defunct Diddy – Dirty Money, sued Combs, alleging that he groped and threatened her and at times did not pay her money while he oversaw her career.

And communication stopped, they said, after Harper denied on social media that she had witnessed some of the things alleged in Richard’s complaint.

The allegation of communication between Combs and Harper is one of several examples of “witness tampering” and obstruction of justice that prosecutors presented to a New York judge on Tuesday, arguing that Combs is too dangerous, violent and in contempt of the federal charges against him to be allowed to return home before his trial.

“This incident is just one example of the defendant’s continued ability to keep witnesses in his pocket and have them available – even witnesses who may have been present at abuse cases long ago,” one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson, told a judge on Tuesday.

Combs’ lawyers had requested his release on bail, saying he could post a $50 million bond. But US Judge Robyn Tarnofsky rejected their request on Tuesday. She said, among other things, that even with bail, she could not “adequately ensure his return to court or the safety of the community or the avoidance of witness tampering.”

U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr. affirmed that decision on Wednesday after Combs’ attorney filed an appeal.

Tuesday’s hearing was the first public admission that authorities believe Combs has tried to silence people who might speak out against him. Prosecutors said that since he was sued in November by his longtime ex-girlfriend, who accused him of years of physical and sexual abuse, he has contacted not only Harper, but also witnesses who received grand jury subpoenas and at least one person he allegedly harmed.

A lawyer for Combs said there could not have been any obstruction of justice, in part because he did not know that criminal proceedings had been initiated against him.

Prosecutor Johnson told the judge: “The defendant’s power gives him a unique ability to influence and intimidate witnesses and victims. The witnesses we interviewed without exception expressed fear of the defendant. His influence makes it extremely difficult to convince people that they are safe from his actions.”

Prosecutors said Combs contacted Harper shortly after Richard alleged in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10 that Combs assaulted, groped and detained her. In a statement, an attorney for Combs called Richard’s lawsuit “an attempt to rewrite history” and accused her of “looking for money.” Richard says in her lawsuit that Harper was present during some of those interactions and that they both witnessed Combs’ abuse of his former longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie who was signed to his record label, Bad Boy.

In a statement Friday, Harper said, among other things, that “many of the allegations and incidents described in this lawsuit are not representative of my experiences and some do not align with my own truth.”

Johnson said that from the time Richards filed the lawsuit until the day after Harper’s deposition, Combs and Harper “had a total of 128 telephone contacts,” with Combs calling or texting Harper 58 times in four days.

“There has been no contact since September 14,” Johnson said.

Attempts to reach Harper for comment at the phone numbers and email addresses listed, as well as through her social media accounts, were unsuccessful.

One of Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, told the judge Tuesday that Harper’s final testimony was “the opposite of witness obstruction that comes to mind” and that it merely reflected “two witnesses’ differing memories of similar events.”

He added that he did not see how Combs could have obstructed justice since Richard was not identified as a witness in the federal case.

In court on Tuesday, prosecutors also accused Combs of twice calling an unnamed person he financially supports three days after Ventura filed her lawsuit. Ventura had sued Combs in November, claiming he physically abused her during their years-long relationship, raping her once when she tried to leave him and forcing her to participate in drug-fueled orgies with male prostitutes he called “freak offs” while Combs watched, masturbated and sometimes recorded them. They settled a day after the lawsuit was filed, without disclosing terms and with Combs denying any wrongdoing.

Combs, according to Johnson, “sought the victim’s support and friendship and attempted to convince the victim that she had voluntarily engaged in sexual acts with him.”

In one of the phone calls, which prosecutors cited in court on Tuesday, Combs can be heard telling the alleged victim: “If she continues to stand by him and offer him support and friendship, she has nothing else to worry about.” According to Johnson, this is “just a thinly veiled indication that this financial support will continue.”

Johnson said both calls were recorded.

Johnson also said that since Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs and his alleged co-conspirators had been contacting alleged victims and witnesses – including people who had received grand jury subpoenas from the government in his case. Johnson said the “contact occurred before any testimony or meetings with the government.” And in one case, it was allegedly with a person Combs had not spoken to in years, Johnson said.

Prosecutors say Combs and his alleged co-conspirators tried to avoid detection when contacting alleged victims and witnesses, including by using intermediaries.

“That makes it incredibly difficult to uncover that obstruction,” Johnson said Tuesday as she made her case for Combs to remain incarcerated pending his trial. “And from our investigation, we know what happened on some of those calls. We know that at least one purpose is to spread false narratives and to get witnesses on his side and tell them – sometimes by manipulating them – to make them believe that something happened that didn’t happen.”

Combs made multiple appeals to at least two witnesses who received grand jury subpoenas over the summer, Johnson said. She said the witnesses who received subpoenas had firsthand knowledge of Combs’ conduct as charged in the indictment.

Agnifilo argued that Combs could not have obstructed justice because he did not know he was under criminal investigation in November. “So I don’t see any of these things as obstruction of justice,” Agnifilo said.

Combs was charged with sex trafficking, organized crime and transportation for the purpose of prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment alleges that Combs and his associates operated a criminal enterprise that engaged in sex trafficking and other crimes, primarily to facilitate and cover up “freak offs” — defined in the indictment as “highly orchestrated performances of sexual acts” in hotels and other locations that “occurred on a regular basis, sometimes lasting multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers.” In such events, the indictment alleges, women were pumped full of drugs to keep them “obedient and submissive” while they were forced to have sex with male prostitutes.