What The Feds Said In Court — Prosecutors Claim Lil Durk Hid A Contraband Device, Defense Says He Was Targeted
The bond ruling is still coming — Judge Fitzgerald took it under submission, as we reported last night. But what got said inside that hearing is a story of its own.
Arguing against release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Weiner told the court that Durk had hidden a contraband phone in a body cavity before it was secreted out of his cell, that he had attempted to engage with a cooperating witness, and that he behaves like he runs the jail. “It is just too risky to release him,” Weiner said, warning the rapper might flee to a country with no extradition agreement.
Courtroom reporter Trap Lore Ross, who was covering the hearing, put the device claim more specifically: prosecutors said Durk secreted an Apple Watch in a body cavity and then tried to destroy it. The Apple Watch has history in this case — an alleged unauthorized Apple Watch is what put Durk in solitary for 131 days starting in August 2025, before he returned to general population in January.
The defense’s answer, from attorney Brian Steel, was that Durk is being targeted. Steel told the judge the repeated cell searches are the real story — searches multiple times inside 48 to 72 hours, including invasive body searches — and that when Durk refused a search, he was doing exactly what Steel had advised him to do: respectfully ask for a lieutenant. Steel said another person stepped in and escalated the confrontation, not Durk, and he told the court plainly, “MDC is horrible.” Prosecutors confirmed at the hearing that Durk is currently in solitary confinement following the dispute over the searches.
Defense attorney Christy O’Connor laid out the other side of the ledger: a bond package she called huge and all-encompassing, including Durk’s mother’s home and his future music royalties as collateral, with Sony Music guaranteeing up to $1 million.
None of the prosecution’s jail claims have been proven — they are arguments made at a bond hearing, and the judge has not ruled on any of them. What they show is how hard both sides are fighting over the same question Fitzgerald now has in front of him: whether Durk Banks waits for his August 2027 racketeering trial at home, or in a cell at MDC Los Angeles.
Sources: courtroom reporting via Urban Hollywood 411 and Trap Lore Ross (via No Jumper on X); case history via TMZ and Complex reporting. Read our earlier coverage: Lil Durk Gets No Answer — Judge Takes Bond Decision Under Review
