Prosecutors add claims and victims to indictment against Sean 'Diddy' Combs
Prosecutors add claims and victims to indictment against Sean 'Diddy' Combs
NEW YORK — Prosecutors added details to their indictment against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs on Thursday, saying the hip-hop star scheduled for a May trial is accused of sex trafficking at least three women and of once dangling someone off a hotel balcony during a two-decade racketeering conspiracy.
The refreshed indictment was filed in Manhattan federal court. A request for comment was sent to a lawyer for Combs.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges lodged against him after his September arrest. He remains incarcerated without bail, awaiting a May 5 trial.
In the superseding indictment, prosecutors added four years to the length of the alleged racketeering conspiracy, saying it lasted from about 2004 to 2024. The original indictment said the conspiracy began by 2008.
The indictment specified that there are at least three female victims, listing them only as “Victim-1,” “Victim-2” and “Victim-3.”
Prosecutors said Combs used the “power and prestige” he wielded as a music mogul to intimidate, threaten and lure women into his orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.
The indictment said he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including the three women, to engage in commercial sex acts.
It said he subjected his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm and verbal abuse.
“On multiple occasions, Combs threw both objects and people, as well as hit, dragged, choked and shoved others,” it said. “On one occasion, Combs dangled a victim over an apartment balcony.”
Earlier this month, defense lawyers said in court papers that the allegations described in the indictment were a “sexist and puritanical” reaction by prosecutors to consensual sex acts between willing adults.
They wrote that "the government’s theory perpetuates stereotypes of female victimhood and lack of agency.”
They said the government’s view depends on the characterization of the sex performances as “dirty, disgusting, or inherently unsavory” and shows that the government “seeks to police non-conforming sexual activity and that it assumes — despite all evidence to the contrary — that a woman’s willing participation must have been coerced.”
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