Disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday pleaded not guilty to the latest round of sex trafficking charges brought in his sweeping criminal case, a month out from his trial.
Combs, sporting graying hair and a white goatee, told the court he was “not guilty” of a new Mann Act count filed on April 3 and a charge alleging he forced a woman into sex trafficking from 2021 through last year before his arrest. The Bad Boy Records co-founder is also charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and related counts, all of which he denies.
Lawyers for “Diddy” told the court on Monday they wanted to delay his trial by another two weeks, arguing they needed more time to review evidence. Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian told them to make the request for an adjournment promptly and within 48 hours, saying they were “on a freight train moving toward trial.”
Combs, 55, formerly known as “Puff Daddy” and various other iterations of his current stage name, is facing a potential decades-long prison sentence if convicted at his trial starting next month.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office alleges Combs abused his larger-than-life status in the entertainment industry to sexually brutalize women over decades, often in so-called “freak off” sessions that lasted days and involved forced sexual performances with male commercial sex workers.
Victims were drugged with sedatives such as Xanax and GHB, according to charging papers, and required IV fluids to recover from the extreme physical exertion and drug use involved in the freak offs, according to charging papers.
The jailed producer and his associates engaged in kidnapping and arson and kept tabs on victims’ whereabouts to threaten them into silence and submission, the feds charge. Last year, authorities seized three AR-15 semiautomatic rifles with defaced serial numbers and a drum magazine from the rapper’s residences, court docs say.
In addition to his criminal case, Combs has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and related offenses by women and men ranging in age in a litany of lawsuits. He denies those claims and claims all sexual encounters and relationships he engaged in were consensual.
The New York native has been incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in September, having failed to convince multiple judges to release him on a $50 million bond. His trial is slated to begin on May 5.
Allegations of criminal wrongdoing against Combs exploded into public view in November 2023 when R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, his ex-girlfriend, accused him of “savage” beatings, drugging her, and forcing her to sleep with other men in a lawsuit demanding $30 million that Combs settled the suit the next day.
Months later, Combs was seen violently assaulting Ventura at a Manhattan hotel in 2016 in viral footage first published by CNN, which jurors are expected to view at the trial. The footage’s release prompted a mea culpa from Combs, who said he took responsibility, adding, “I was disgusted then, when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”
