For the second time in as many months, Sean “Diddy Combs has been indicted on criminal charges by the Department of Justice.
Heading towards a trial next month that could see the Grammy winner in prison for the rest of his life if found guilty by a jury, the 55-year-old Combs today lashed out at the feds once again, claiming with the latest superseding indictment they were trying to turn his kinky intimate life into crimes.
“These are not new allegations or new accusers,” a spokesperson for the Bad Boy Records founder’s Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos-led legal team said Friday of the two new charges that have raised the total charges against Combs to five. “These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”
Out of luck on three occasions at trying to get out of being incarcerated at Brooklyn’s hardcore Metropolitan Detention Center, Combs’ already delayed trial is set to start on May 12 now.
A second indictment handed down by the grand jury on March 6 that included forced labor claims superseded the original indictment back in September when the much-accused Combs was arrested by LAPD and federal officials in a NYC hotel lobby. That first indictment had one claim each of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Backed up in part by the quickly settled ($30 million) assault and abuse suit and more from Victim-1, a.k.a. longtime Cassie Ventura, the government claims Combs and his inner circle coerced women into marathon sexual encounters called “freak-offs” with male and female prostitutes, drug use, threats of violence and imprisonment in the hotel rooms where the action was staged and videotaped.
Sean “Diddy” Combs during the 2004 CFDA Fashion Awards – Sean John / Zac Posen After Party in NYC. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
In the now third indictment, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York are centering on an unnamed Victim-2 over the two additional charges on Combs of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Between 2021 and 2024, the ‘I Need A Girl’ performer recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, and maintained Victim-2, and attempted, aided and abetted, and willfully caused Victim-2, to engage in commercial sex acts, knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that Victim-2 was engaging in commercial sex acts as a result of force, fraud, and coercion,” the new indictment says.
The document filed this morning by the SDNY in Judge Arun Subramanian’s docket, the new elements of the latest indictment adds: “From at least in or about 2021, up to and including in or about 2024, in the Southern District ofNew York and elsewhere, SEAN COMBS, a/k/a “Puff Daddy,” a/k/a “P. Diddy,” a/k/a “Diddy,” a/k/a “PD,” a/k/a “Love,” the defendant, knowingly transported individuals in interstate and foreign commerce with intent that the individuals engage in prostitution, and attempted, aided and abetted, and willfully caused the same, to wit, COMBS transported, aided and abetted, and willfully caused the transportation of multiple individuals, including but not limited to Victim-2 and commercial sex workers, in interstate and foreign commerce on multiple occasions with the intent that they engage in prostitution.”
The SDNY had no comment when contacted by Deadline about the new indictment.
Prosecutors are hoping to use the previously schedule April 25 pre-trial hearing to deal with repeatedly not guilty pleading Comb’s third arraignment. However, it would be relatively simple for the defense to throw up not all together unwarranted roadblocks of needing more time to assess the new indictment or something along those lines. The result could derail the feds’ anticipated timeline, and even push back the already once pushed back trial start.
Throwing another potential spanner in the works, the defense is very likely to push back against the prosecution’s desire to have measures put in place by the court to “protect” the identities plus the “dignity and privacy” of three of the four victims set to testify. Ventura has long let it be known she intends to take the stand under her own name. However, with allegations of intimidation and even witness tampering being made over the months against Combs, the feds are trying to alleviate the fears the other women have expressed about showing up in court.
As Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said Friday in a heavily redacted filing:
To protect their privacy, the Government respectfully requests that the Court take certain narrowly tailored measures at trial that are consistent with the protections multiple victims of sex crimes have been afforded in recent federal trials within this Circuit. Specifically, the Government requests that (1) Victim-2, Victim-3, and Victim-4 be referred to at trial using only pseudonyms; (2) the Court preclude the defense from eliciting personally identifying details of those witnesses; and (3) the Court seal exhibits that contain the first and/or last names of Victim-2, Victim-3, and Victim-4, with redacted versions to be made available to the public. This case has already received an exceptional amount of media coverage, which will presumably only increase as trial proceeds. Permitting these measures will prevent unnecessary public disclosure of the victims’ identities, and the harassment from the media and others, undue embarrassment, and other adverse consequences that would almost certainly follow if these women were forced to reveal their true names publicly at trial.
Up against dozens and dozens of civil actions (most from Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee) claiming assault and abuse by Combs, the once mini-mogul has claimed before that the real issue at play in his criminal trial is the prudishness of the government. Earlier this year, Combs and his legal team said that prosecutors are using “racist” laws against him and desiring to “police non-conforming sexual activity.” On February 24, the defense took a swing at “unconstitutionally broad” search warrants that had been used on Combs, raids of his LA and Miami homes, devices, digital storage and more.
More recently, Combs has sought to discredit the shocking 2016 video that CNN obtained last year of the White Party host half naked chasing Ventura down an LA hotel hallway, beating her and dragging her back to his room where allegedly one of his so-called freak offs was happening. On March 13 this year, CNN strongly denied Combs’ claims they altered the timestamp and fundamentally re-edited the violent footage.
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