The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs was due in court Tuesday on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges that accuse him of hitting and abusing women for over a decade and presiding over an empire of sexual crimes.
Detailing allegations dating to 2009, the indictment accuses him of abusing, threatening and coercing women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not guilty and that he would"fight like hell" to try to get his client released from custody.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise engaged in or attempting to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. Combs, 54, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.Combs and his attorneys, however, denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman,The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people.
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