Sean “Diddy” Combs has pleaded not responsible to new intercourse crime expenses towards him.
In a brand new indictment made public by federal prosecutors on Friday, April 4, Combs, 55, was charged with another rely every of intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution, per courtroom paperwork obtained by PEOPLE on the time. The brand new expenses are associated to a plaintiff known as Sufferer-2, in response to the indictment.
Combs, who was beforehand charged with three counts, together with intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to have interaction in prostitution, is now going through 5 felony counts, per the indictment, which was first filed in September 2024.
Combs pleaded not responsible to the expanded indictment throughout a listening to in Manhattan, N.Y., on Monday, April 14, the Associated Press reported. His authorized workforce has till Wednesday, April 16, to ask for extra time for discovery, which may delay the trial.
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“We’re a freight practice shifting towards trial,” Decide Arun Subramanian stated throughout the listening to, in response to the AP.
Combs’ legal professional Marc Agnifilo stated the protection will possible request a “very brief” two-week pause attributable to issues over discovery. He stated prosecutors did not ask a witness to submit 200,000 of her emails, and as an alternative allowed her to offer what she thought was related.
For now, jury choice continues to be scheduled to start on Could 5.
On Friday, April 11, Agnifilo requested Decide Subramanian for permission to query potential jurors about “central points on the coronary heart of the case,” akin to their “connection to drug and alcohol abuse, their connection to home violence, their willingness to look at movies with bodily assault and movies which can be sexually express, and their views in the direction of individuals with a number of sexual companions,” per a letter obtained by PEOPLE.
Agnifolo stated within the letter that the trial is said to delicate and personal content material that many may very well be “uncomfortable” talking about, however could also be extra “candid” if requested concerning the points in a questionnaire.
Prosecutors, nonetheless, stated the questionnaire ought to be as concise as attainable, specializing in “points that relate to for-cause challenges relatively than private info that might solely be related to peremptory challenges,” per a courtroom doc seen by PEOPLE.
They added that the potential jurors’ questionnaire ought to keep away from “delicate and private matters, and may contain the only attainable questions.”
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PEOPLE reached out to Combs’ attorneys for remark.
The brand new indictment alleges Combs “recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, offered, obtained, marketed, maintained, patronized and solicited [Victim-2], and tried, aided and abetted, and willfully prompted [Victim-2], to have interaction in industrial intercourse acts, understanding and in reckless disregard of the truth that Sufferer-2 was partaking in industrial intercourse acts on account of drive, fraud, and coercion.”
The brand new prostitution-related cost can be linked to Sufferer 2. Nevertheless, the racketeering case stays the identical within the new superseding indictment.
“These will not be new allegations or new accusers. These are the identical people, former long-term girlfriends, who had been concerned in consensual relationships,” Combs’ attorneys beforehand instructed PEOPLE in response to the brand new counts. “This was their personal intercourse life, outlined by consent, not coercion.”
A pretrial convention is scheduled for Friday, April 18. He’s being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Middle, and has pleaded not responsible to all claims towards him.
Should you or somebody has been a sufferer of sexual abuse, textual content “STRENGTH” to the Disaster Textual content Line at 741-741 to be linked to an authorized disaster counselor.
