DIDDY has been slapped with new prostitution and sex trafficking charges just a month before his trial.
Sean John Combs, known by his stage name Diddy, is preparing to go on trial in New York on May 5.
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Prosecutors claim the rapper recruited, transported and forced this victim to engage in sex acts and prostitution from 2021 to 2024.
The 55-year-old has denied the allegations and his legal team has claimed that the activities described were “consensual.”
“These are not new allegations or new accusers,” Mr Combs’s legal team told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
“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.”
Diddy is on trial for sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The new charges will bring the total number against him up to five.
The music sensation was arrested in September last year at a New York City hotel hours after he was seen relaxing in Central Park.
The charges came less than a year after a lawsuit filed by Combs’ ex Cassie Ventura accused the rapper of physically and sexually abusing her for years.
That suit spurred a raft of other allegations made by alleged victims of the musician.
Some of the allegations included that he recorded blackmail videos at the events and that victims were left so fatigued that they needed IV drips to recover.
These are laid out in the grand jury indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs after his arrest in New York.
According to prosecutors, Combs threw wild parties he called “freak offs” where he would fly in sex workers for days of raucous sessions.
However once at the party, workers would be coerced through money and intimidated into performing sick nonconsensual acts, the indictment claims.
Since his arrest, the disgraced rapper Diddy has been locked up in a hellhole rat-infested prison as he awaits trial.
He had his shocking $50 million bail bid denied by a judge.
Prosecutors argued that the embattled hip-hop tycoon was a danger to the community and urged the judge to keep him locked up.
Accused of running a sex crime empire, Combs has denied the allegations stemming from a months-long investigation.
Earlier this year, the hip-hop mogul’s lawyer sensationally quit the legal team, plunging the rapper into a new crisis earlier this year.
Anthony Ricco issued a mysterious statement saying he “cannot continue”.
Ricco issued a surprise motion to withdraw from counsel on Friday in New York.
The lawyer’s message to the court included a cryptic message hinting at why he dropped Diddy.
His motion said: “Although I have provided Sean Combs with the high level of legal representation expected by the court, under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs.”
Ricco added: “There are sufficient reasons (related to the protections afforded by the attorney/client privilege) for brevity in my application for withdrawal as counsel in this case”.
The evidence against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
The months-long federal sex trafficking probe against Sean Combs has culminated in a searing incictment that was unsealed on Tuesday. Combs has been hit with one count of racketeering and one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and one count of transportation to engage in prostitution. But behind those legal charges lies a mountain of alleged evidence of menace, violence, and horrific abuse of his fame. The indictment alleges:
- Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
- He “created a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
- The rapper assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.”
- Combs “manipulated women to participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers” that he called “freak offs.”
- Freak offs “occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers.”
- During freak offs, he “distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant.”
- After freak offs, Combs and the victims “typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.”
- In March 2024, during searches of his residences in Miami and Los Angeles, “law enforcement seized various Freak Off supplies, including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.”
- During and separate from Freak Offs, Combs “hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at times, by their hair…These assaults often resulted in injuries that took days or weeks to heal.”
- He also used the “sensitive, embarrassing, and incriminating recordings” that he made during freak offs as “collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims.”
- Combs himself “brandished firearms to intimidate and threaten others, including victims of and witnesses to his abuse.”
- During searches of his homes, “law enforcement seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, as well as a drum magazine.”
- Associates “assisted him in locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee his abuse.”
- When witnesses to the abuse threatened his authority or reputation, he and members and associates of the enterprise “engaged in acts of violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm, and verbal abuse. These acts of violence included kidnapping and arson.”
