Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs arrived in court on Monday to be arraigned on an expanded federal indictment charging the hip-hop mogul with five criminal counts, including racketeering and sex trafficking.<\/p>\n
Combs, 55, was due to enter his plea to the new charges at a hearing before US District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan. He had previously pleaded not guilty to an earlier three-count indictment.<\/p>\n
Combs, sporting grey hair and wearing a tan prison suit, smiled and took a sip from a water bottle as he sat down at the defence table before the hearing began.<\/p>\n
In a statement earlier this month provided by Combs\u2019 media representatives, his lawyers said, \u201cThese are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jury selection for Combs\u2019 trial remains scheduled for May 5, with opening statements due to begin on May 12.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney\u2019s office say Combs used his business empire to sexually abuse women between 2004 and 2024.<\/p>\n
The alleged abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called \u2018freak offs\u2019 with male sex workers, who were sometimes transported across state lines.<\/p>\n
Combs has been jailed in Brooklyn since September. He also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who accused him of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
Combs\u2019 legal team has forcefully denied that he did anything wrong.<\/p>\n
Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs\u2019 lawyers, has said Combs never forced anyone to engage in sexual acts against their will, and that the freak-offs were consensual sexual activity.<\/p>\n
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious BIG and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n
But prosecutors have said his success concealed a dark side, citing incidents, including in March 2016 when Combs was captured on a surveillance video kicking, dragging and throwing a vase at a woman trying to leave a Los Angeles hotel.<\/p>\n
CNN last year broadcast a surveillance video showing Combs striking and dragging his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie.<\/p>\n
Combs apologised following the broadcast. Agnifilo has said the video was not evidence of sex trafficking, and that Combs and Ventura had \u201ca toxic, loving 11-year relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs arrived in court on Monday to be arraigned on an expanded federal indictment charging the hip-hop mogul with five criminal counts, including racketeering and sex trafficking. Combs, 55, was due to enter his plea to the new charges at a hearing before US District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan. He had previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8134,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8132\/revisions\/8134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}