Musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was indicted on two counts of another crime by federal prosecutors on Friday, expanding on the allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul sex trafficked and abused women for years.
A superseding indictment filed in New York accuses Combs of sex trafficking by 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, alleges Combs was involved in transporting a 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 now bring the total number of criminal charges against Combs up to five, just one month before his trial is set to begin on May 5.
Combs, 55, was arrested on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution in September. The charges, laid out in a sprawling indictment, accused him of running a “criminal enterprise” to assist him in sexually, physically and emotionally abusing women for years.
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 musician 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.
Additional reporting by AP.
