Federal prosecutors on Friday added two fees to Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ indictment and mentioned they anticipate 4 accusers to testify towards him, increasing on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in intercourse trafficking with a number of girls and as lately as final 12 months.
A superseding indictment accuses Combs of utilizing drive, fraud or coercion to compel a lady to interact in business intercourse acts from at the least 2021 to 2024.The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, additionally alleges that Combs was concerned in transporting the lady — recognized solely as “Sufferer-2” — and different folks, together with business intercourse staff, to interact in prostitution throughout the identical interval.
The brand new fees are along with racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking fees filed towards Combs when he was arrested in September. They improve the overall variety of fees towards him from three to 5.In a court docket submitting, federal prosecutors mentioned the racketeering conspiracy cost entails allegations that Combs sex-trafficked three victims and compelled a fourth, one among his workers, into sexual exercise with him.
Combs, 55, denies committing any crimes. He’s scheduled to face trial Might 5 and stays locked up with out bail at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
“These are usually not new allegations or new accusers. These are the identical people, former long-term girlfriends, who had been concerned in consensual relationships,” Combs’ authorized staff mentioned in a press release. “This was their non-public intercourse life, outlined by consent, not coercion.” Friday’s superseding indictment is the third filed towards Combs.
Within the first, in January, federal prosecutors disclosed that their case concerned at the least three girls whom they mentioned Combs pressured to interact in business intercourse acts. Additionally they alleged Combs confirmed a firearm to a feminine sufferer throughout a kidnapping and as soon as dangled a lady over an residence balcony.
Combs’ January indictment didn’t embrace further fees however modified some particulars of the present ones, together with including 4 years to the alleged racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors now say it began in 2004, not 2008 as the unique indictment had alleged. A superseding indictment in March contained minimal modifications.
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Combs has pleaded not responsible to the primary set of fees, which allege that he coerced and abused girls for years with assist from a community of associates and workers whereas silencing victims by way of blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.
His arraignment on the brand new fees has not been scheduled. Prosecutors requested Friday that it’s held at his last pretrial convention on April 25.Of their submitting Friday, prosecutors mentioned three of the 4 accusers who’re anticipated to testify have requested that their identities not be revealed to the press or the general public and that they as a substitute be referred to by at trial utilizing solely pseudonyms.
The accuser known as “Sufferer-1” in Combs’ charging paperwork is ready to testify below her personal title, prosecutors mentioned within the submitting, which was closely redacted.
Federal prosecutors allege the “I’ll Be Lacking You” singer and Unhealthy Boy Data founder used his “energy and status” as a music star to induce feminine victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male intercourse staff in occasions dubbed “Freak Offs.”
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Central to the case is a March 2016 video displaying Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles lodge hallway. Prosecutors contend the assault occurred throughout a “Freak Off.” Combs legal professionals argue the footage was nothing greater than a “glimpse into a posh however decade-long consensual relationship” between the 2.
Combs’ legal professionals contend the case ought to by no means have been introduced and are preventing to dismiss a cost involving allegations he transported a male escort throughout state traces.
“The federal government has concocted a legal case based mostly totally on allegations that Mr. Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends generally introduced a 3rd celebration — a male escort — into their sexual relationship,” Combs lawyer Alexandra AE Shapiro wrote in a February court docket submitting. “Every of the three fees within the case are premised on the speculation that this sort of sexual exercise is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.
