Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs pleaded not responsible on Friday to a brand new indictment, which added accusations that the hip-hop mogul pressured workers to work lengthy hours and threatened to punish those that didn’t help in a two-decade intercourse trafficking scheme.
Combs, 55, entered his plea to the brand new indictment earlier than U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at a listening to in Manhattan federal courtroom. A trial is about for May 5.
Combs, who has been held in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial since his September 2024 arrest, wore saggy tan jail garb and sported grey hair and a grey beard. He blew kisses to his mom and different members of the family seated within the courtroom viewers as he was led out on the finish of the 45-minute listening to.
Combs beforehand pleaded not responsible to prices of racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
Also recognized throughout his profession as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs based Bad Boy Records and is credited with serving to flip rappers and R&B singers similar to Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office stated Combs used his enterprise empire, together with his report label Bad Boy Entertainment, to sexually abuse girls between 2004 and 2024.
Combs’ alleged abuse included having girls participate in recorded sexual performances known as “freak offs” with male intercourse staff, who have been generally transported throughout state strains.
While the brand new indictment added no new prices, it described what prosecutors known as the “forced labor” that Combs demanded in reference to the 20-year alleged racketeering conspiracy.
It stated Combs and his associates “maintained control” over some workers by forcing them to work lengthy hours with little sleep, by using or threats to make use of bodily drive, monetary hurt, psychological hurt and reputational hurt.
Combs’ protection lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has stated his shopper by no means pressured anybody to have interaction in sexual acts in opposition to their will. Agnifilo has stated the freak offs have been consensual sexual exercise.
In a preview of a looming dispute over what might be an important piece of proof, prosecutor Mitzi Steiner stated the protection might search to stop them from introducing at trial a lodge surveillance video broadcast by CNN final yr displaying Combs placing and dragging his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer often known as Cassie.
Combs apologized final May after CNN broadcast the video. Agnifilo has stated the video was not proof of intercourse trafficking, and stated Combs and Ventura had “a toxic, loving 11-year relationship.”
In courtroom on Friday, Agnifilo stated the video was out of sequence after which elements of it had been sped up.
“It’s a misleading piece of evidence, it’s a deceptive piece of evidence, it’s a piece of evidence that has been changed,” Agnifilo stated.
A CNN spokesperson stated the outlet by no means altered the video.
Subramanian urged the 2 sides work collectively to place the video within the right sequence and on the right pace earlier than displaying it to the jury.
At Friday’s listening to, Subramanian stated potential jurors would start filling out questionnaires on April 28. In-person questioning of jurors will begin on May 5, with opening statements on May 12, the choose stated.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.