After proposing a $50 million bail package, Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held without bail on charges of sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors said Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” from 2008 to now. The allegations mirror 11 civil complaints filed against him since 2023.
Combs made his first appearance in a New York City federal courtroom on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty.
Combs, with help from Combs Enterprise associates, is accused of transporting commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally, the indictment said.
Combs allegedly “manipulated women to participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers,” the indictment said, and he allegedly coerced the women into participating by giving them drugs, “controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and threatening to cut off the same, and using intimidation and violence.”
The music mogul’s lawyer suggested the sex trafficking charge is an example of government misjudging consensual conduct.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo argued the 2016 hotel surveillance video of Combs assaulting his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura wasn’t evidence of sex trafficking, but of a relationship deteriorating. He said, before the assault that was caught on surveillance video, Ventura hit Combs with his phone while he was sleeping, because she discovered text messages from other women.
Diddy will try again for pretrial release on bail. “We’re appealing the decision to hold him without bail,” Agnifilo said. Diddy will stay in federal custody until his bail appeal hearing, which is set for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
