Federal prosecutors have added two expenses to Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ indictment, increasing on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in intercourse trafficking as not too long ago as final 12 months.
A superseding indictment filed Friday (Apr 4) accuses Combs of utilizing power, fraud, or coercion to compel a lady to interact in business intercourse acts from a minimum of 2021 to 2024.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, additionally alleges Combs was concerned in transporting the girl — recognized solely as Sufferer 2 — and different individuals, together with business intercourse staff, to interact in prostitution throughout the identical time-frame.
The brand new expenses are along with racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking expenses filed in opposition to Combs when he was arrested last September. They enhance the overall variety of expenses in opposition to him from three to 5.
Combs, 55, is scheduled to face trial Could 5. He stays locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. A message in search of touch upon the brand new expenses was left along with his representatives.
Combs denies committing any crimes and has pleaded not responsible to the primary set of expenses, which allege that he coerced and abused ladies 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 expenses has not been scheduled.
Federal prosecutors allege the I’ll Be Lacking You singer and Dangerous Boy Information 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”.
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 resort 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 prison case based mostly totally on allegations that Mr Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends generally introduced a 3rd social gathering — a male escort — into their sexual relationship,” Combs lawyer Alexandra A E Shapiro wrote in a February courtroom submitting.
“Every of the three expenses within the case are premised on the speculation that the sort of sexual exercise is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.
Friday’s superseding indictment is the second filed in Combs’ case.
Within the first, in January, federal prosecutors disclosed that their case concerned a minimum of three ladies whom they mentioned Combs compelled to interact in business intercourse acts. In change, prosecutors mentioned, he supplied them with cash, profession alternatives and fee of hire and housing bills.
