Federal prosecutors have added two charges to Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ indictment, expanding on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in sex trafficking as recently as last year.
A superseding indictment filed Friday (Apr 4) accuses Combs of using force, fraud, or coercion to compel a woman to engage in commercial sex acts from at least 2021 to 2024.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, also alleges Combs was involved in transporting the woman — identified only as Victim 2 — and other people, including commercial sex workers, to engage in prostitution during the same time frame.
The new charges are in addition to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges filed against Combs when he was arrested last September. They increase the total number of charges against him from three to five.
Combs, 55, is scheduled to stand trial May 5. He remains locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. A message seeking comment on the new charges was left with his representatives.
Combs denies committing any crimes and has pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges, which allege that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
His arraignment on the new charges has not been scheduled.
Federal prosecutors allege the I’ll Be Missing You singer and Bad Boy Records founder used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs”.
Central to the case is a March 2016 video showing Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway. Prosecutors contend the assault happened during a “Freak Off”. Combs’ lawyers argue the footage was nothing more than a “glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship” between the two.
Combs’ lawyers contend the case should never have been brought and are fighting to dismiss a charge involving allegations he transported a male escort across state lines.
“The government has concocted a criminal case based primarily on allegations that Mr Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party — a male escort — into their sexual relationship,” Combs lawyer Alexandra A E Shapiro wrote in a February court filing.
“Each of the three charges in the case are premised on the theory that this type of sexual activity is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.
Friday’s superseding indictment is the second filed in Combs’ case.
In the first, in January, federal prosecutors disclosed that their case involved at least three women whom they said Combs forced to engage in commercial sex acts. In exchange, prosecutors said, he provided them with money, career opportunities and payment of rent and housing expenses.
