Sean “Diddy” Combs Charged With Sex Trafficking and Racketeering in Unsealed Indictment

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been charged with sex trafficking and racketeering for directing a vast criminal enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the help of his various businesses from at least 2008.

Federal prosecutors, in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, accused the music mogul of engaging in a “pervasive pattern of abuse” that included assaulting and arranging forced sexual encounters with women. He coerced them into sex by drugging them, threatening their careers and using intimidation and violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged.

For decades, Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,” the indictment stated. Prosecutors accused Combs and his associates of sex trafficking, forced labor, coercion to engage in prostitution and narcotics distribution, among other things.

Combs is set to appear in court Tuesday morning after a late-night arrest the prior night following in a federal grand jury indictment. His lawyer Marc Agnifilo said outside the courthouse that Combs will plead not guilty to charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement after Combs was arrest, Agnifilo said the U.S. Attorney’s Office is pursuing an “unjust prosecution.” He added that Combs, who relocated to New York last week in anticipation of being charged, has cooperated in the investigation. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community,” Agnifilo, a former federal and state prosecutor, said. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”

Combs has been facing deepening legal trouble, with federal law enforcement raiding his homes in March as part of an investigation into human trafficking. A lawsuit filed last week from former bandmate Dawn Richard, who accused him of sexual harassment and assault when she was a member of a musical trio with the hip-hop mogul, marked the tenth complaint brought against Combs since his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura filed a lawsuit against him detailing years of physical and sexual abuse. That action quickly settled but led to other accusers, including Liza Gardner, Joi Dickerson-Neal and Crystal McKinney, bringing similar complaints. Combs has denied the allegations and largely said the accusers are looking for payouts.

Those claims were undermined when CNN in May released hotel security footage of Combs assaulting Ventura. After, the rapper apologized and stated he was “digusted when I did it,” though he continued to deny other allegations of assault.

More to come.