Topline
Prosecutors accused Sean “Diddy” Combs” of subjecting employees to forced labor and using physical and psychological threats to maintain control over employees in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday, which did not add any new charges but arrives two months before he stands trial on his sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. (Here is a complete list of the allegations against Combs.)
Prosecutors accused Combs of subjecting employees to forced labor in a new indictment. (Photo by: … [+]
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Timeline
The new indictment, filed in New York federal court, accuses Combs of maintaining control over employees by forcing them to “work long hours with little sleep” by subjecting them to, or threatening them with, “physical force, psychological harm, financial harm, and reputational harm,” causing them to believe they may lose their jobs if they did not comply with his demands, with Combs allegedly forcing one employee to engage in sex acts with him through threats and force.
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifolio told multiple news outlets Combs “vehemently denies the accusations,” stating “many former employees stand by his side, prepared to attest to the dedication, hard work, and inspiration they experienced” while working for Combs, who “looks forward to his day in court when it will become clear that he has never forced anyone to engage in sexual acts against their will” (Forbes has reached out to Agnifolio for comment).
Lawyer Anthony Ricco said in a motion filed Friday that “under no circumstances can I continue to effectively serve as counsel for Sean Combs.” He didn’t cite any specific reasons he couldn’t stay on the case, but said they d0 exist and are protected by attorney-client privilege. Combs’ other attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and and Teny Geragos, are expected to continue representing him.
Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a judge to dismiss one of the charges brought against him in a superseding indictment last month—transportation to engage in prostitution—claiming “no white person has ever been the target of a remotely similar prosecution. Combs was charged with transportation to engage in prostitution under The Mann Act, which in 1910 made it illegal to transport women for prostitution and human trafficking. Combs’ attorneys argued in a memorandum filed Tuesday that the statute has racist origins, and that Combs “has been singled out because he is a powerful Black man, and he is being prosecuted for conduct that regularly goes unpunished.”
A high-profile suit accusing Combs and fellow rapper Jay-Z of raping a 13-year-old in 2000 was dropped by the plaintiff’s lawyers, after both Combs and Jay-Z denied the allegations (Read more about it here).
Combs claimed NBCUniversal and Ample Entertainment allowed claims they knew were false to be broadcast in the documentary “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” which released last month. The lawsuit claims executives knew several allegations made in the film were false—including that there are videos of Combs sexually assaulting inebriated celebrities and minors and that Combs was responsible for several murders—but allowed them to air anyway with “reckless disregard” for the truth.
In the documentary, several people interviewed make a wide variety of allegations about Combs and those close to him, including that Combs had threatened people. Representatives for NBCUniversal, Peacock & Ample Entertainment did not immediately respond to Forbes request for comment Wednesday.
Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment that accuses Combs of using force, threats and coercion to cause at least three unnamed, female victims into commercial sex acts, and further accuses him of abuse that included throwing things at people, hitting, choking, pushing and, at one time, dangling a victim over an apartment balcony. His lawyer denied the new allegations in a statement to the Associated Press.
Combs was reportedly transported from prison to the Brooklyn Hospital Center at around 10 p.m. for an MRI after complaining of pain in his knee. He returned hours later.
Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs submitted a letter to federal judge Arun Subramanian demanding prosecutors produce videos mentioned in the indictment against him of his so-called “freak off” parties, claiming they show his sexual activity with one of his alleged victims was consensual and that they’ll prove the government is trying to “police non-confirming sexual activity.” Combs’ lawyers claim the nine videos possessed by prosecutors will show “adults having consensual sex, plain and simple” and contain no evidence of violence, coercion, threats, sex trafficking or other claims made against Combs.
Combs appeared in court for a brief hearing in his federal case at which federal prosecutors said they plan to disclose all available evidence to his defense team by the end of the year in preparation for a May trial date. One court reporter described Combs as appearing “thinner” and “grayer” than when he was last seen in public, and the music mogul wished spectators a “Happy Holidays” as he left.
Maurene Comey, former FBI director James Comey’s daughter who litigated the case in which Maxwell was convicted for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein, on Monday notified the federal court in the Southern District of New York that she has joined the prosecution against Combs.
Subramanian denied Combs’ request to be released on bail citing “compelling evidence of Combs’s propensity for violence.” Subramanian’s ruling also stated that there was evidence supporting “a serious risk of witness tampering,” along with evidence that he “violated Bureau of Prisons regulations during his pretrial detention to obscure his communications with third parties.” The judge also wrote the government prosecutors have shown “by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Attorneys for the federal government argued against Combs’ push to get released on $50 million bail and a laundry list of other conditions, telling Judge Arun Subramanian in a letter the package “does not come close to ensuring the security of the community” or to ensuring Combs won’t interfere with the case or try to flee before the trial—citing an alleged “pattern of violence” toward women and his own staff. In their own letter, defense attorneys argued Combs has been unconstitutionally held in jail and silenced since he was first arrested in September, that the government has launched a campaign against him to keep him from getting a fair trial and that Combs “is not required to sit idly by and acquiesce to all of this.” Subramanian is expected to make a decision on bail by Thanksgiving.
Subramanian heard arguments from attorneys on both sides but punted a decision to the following week on whether Combs should be released on bail. Subramanian rejected the idea Combs be kept under house arrest at a home with a boat dock in Miami but seemed open to potentially releasing him to confinement with around-the-clock security at a three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He asked lawyers to submit further arguments in writing by Monday, Nov. 25.
Subramanian told prosecutors to “get rid of” their copies of handwritten notes taken by Combs in jail, making the decision as he considers legal arguments from Combs’ lawyers that the notes were subject to attorney-client privilege and counter arguments from prosecutors who accused Combs of writing about a witness tampering plot.
In a filing opposing Combs’ request to be released on bail, prosecutors claim Combs has attempted to “corruptly influence witness testimony” by asking his family members to reach out to victims and potential witnesses and create “narratives” to affect their opinion, while also asking his children to post a video to social media in celebration of his birthday and ensuring the video had “his desired effect on potential jury members in this case.”
In “The Downfall of Diddy: Inside the Freak-Offs,” Ray J claims high-profile celebrities are “reaching out to victims” and offering them money in exchange for avoiding any public exposure, and aspiring singer-songwriter Tanea Wallace described her experience at a 2018 party where she said she saw minors “dressed up like Harajuku Barbies, red lipstick, looking like real sexy.”