Sean (Diddy) Combs Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Trafficking and Racketeering Charges

WARNING: This article may impact people who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has.

Sean (Diddy) Combs pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he ran a sordid sex crimes empire, coerced and abused women for years, and used blackmail and shockingly violent acts to keep his victims in line.

The music mogul is charged with conspiracy and sex trafficking, and is accused of soliciting female victims and male sex workers into drugged, sometimes days-long sexual performances called “Freak Offs,” prosecutors said. The charges against him also make a passing reference to a videotaped attack on his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie.

Later on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied Combs bail and ordered him held in jail pending trial.

Combs took a long drink from a water bottle and was then led out of the courthouse without handcuffs. As he walked out, he turned to family members in the audience.

“Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said after the trial. He said he would appeal the bail decision.

The 54-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records is accused of hitting, punching, dragging, throwing objects and kicking women, and allegedly enlisting his personal assistants, security guards and housekeepers to help him cover it up.

“Not guilty,” Combs told the court, rising to speak after listening to the charges and showing little reaction, his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.

Federal prosecutors called Combs dangerous and pushed for him to be held without bail.

WATCH | Prosecutors answer questions about charges:

US prosecutor answers questions after Sean (Diddy) Combs’ indictment

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, says the investigation into the music mogul is ongoing and he encourages anyone with information about the case to come forward.

“Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades. He used the vast resources of his business to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes. Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told a court. His lawyers had asked in court papers that he be released on $50 million bail in the U.S. and sent home with electronic monitoring.

“He’s not a perfect person. There’s been drug use. He’s been in toxic relationships,” Agnifilo told the court. Earlier outside court, he said Combs had come to New York voluntarily to “engage the legal system and start the case.”

Prosecutors said in court papers that they have interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow. They said they will use financial, travel and billing records, electronic records and communications, and videos of the Freak Offs to prove their case.

A conviction on all charges in the indictment would carry a mandatory 15-year prison sentence, with the possibility of life in prison.

Agnifilo, however, argued that “the evidence in this case is extremely problematic.”

WATCH | Combs’ attorney says he’s innocent:

Sean Combs will plead not guilty, lawyer says outside court

Attorney Marc Agnifilo said before details of the sealed indictment against Sean (Diddy) Combs were released Tuesday that his client “will fight this with all of his energy and all of his might.” Combs is facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York.

He insisted the case could be traced back to one alleged victim. He did not name him, but the details matched those of Combs’ decade-long relationship with Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.

Agnifilo argued that the Freak Offs were an extension of that relationship, not a coercive one.

“Is it sex trafficking? Not if everyone wants to be involved,” said Agnifilo, who argued that authorities were interfering in his client’s private life.

What is extortion?

Racketeering does not describe a specific criminal act. Instead, racketeering refers to illegal activities carried out by a coordinated group seeking profit — which can often be misrepresented as legitimate businesses.

In the unsealed indictment, prosecutors alleged that Combs violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal law originally passed in 1970 designed to crack down on criminal organizations such as the Mafia and drug cartels.

RICO allows prosecutors to charge members of a criminal organization with crimes their group committed, even if the person charged was not directly involved in all of the specific criminal acts in question.

Now that the Mafia has largely been dismantled in the US, prosecutors have applied the law to a variety of groups they characterize as criminal enterprises. Both R. Kelly and former US President Donald Trump have been charged under the act, while the 2014 Varsity Blues college admissions scandal was also prosecuted under RICO charges.

WATCH | A former US lawyer explains Trump’s extortion allegations:

What Are Extortion Charges? A Former U.S. Prosecutor Explains

Former US federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin explains what a RICO charge entails and what it could mean for former President Donald Trump and his associates.

The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

Combs and his associates used his “power and prestige” to “intimidate, threaten and lure” women, “often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” the indictment said.

He then allegedly used violence, threats and coercion to induce the women to engage with male sex workers in “elaborate and orchestrated sex performances” that Combs organized, directed, masturbated to and often recorded, resulting in dozens of videos.

According to the indictment, he sometimes arranged for the women to be flown in and secured their participation by buying and supplying drugs, controlling their careers, using his financial support, and using intimidation and violence.

Drugs and firearms seized, charges state

It alleges that Combs sometimes kept videos of victims performing sexual acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued compliance and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career advancement, offering financial support and threatening to withdraw it, dictating how they looked, checking their medical records and determining where they lived, the indictment said.

In a criminal complaint, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified accomplice of kidnapping someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 to facilitate a burglary at someone else’s home. Two weeks later, they wrote, Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by cutting open the convertible top and throwing a Molotov cocktail into it.

Prosecutors say it all happened behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing company.

“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he has been indicted and will appear in court,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday.

Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it.

WATCH | Combs apologizes for hitting ex-girlfriend:

Sean (Diddy) Combs Admits To Beating Ex-Girlfriend Cassie, Posts Video Message

“I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted at the time I did it. I’m disgusted now,” Sean (Diddy) Combs said in a video statement posted Sunday to Instagram and Facebook, responding to security footage from 2016 that showed him punching and kicking Cassie, an R&B singer who was his protégé and longtime girlfriend at the time.

Accusations made him a pariah of the industry

Combs was considered one of the most influential figures in hip-hop until a flood of allegations surfaced last year.

As the threat of criminal charges mounted, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to remain silent, offering bribes and telling false stories about what had happened, the indictment said.

In November, Cassie filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of forcing her and others to have unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.

The lawsuit was settled in a day, but months later CNN aired footage from hotel security showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her to the floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”

The complaint references the attack but does not name Ventura. It says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security guard into keeping quiet about it.

Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for Ventura, declined to comment Tuesday.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a series of lawsuits.

One woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer filed a lawsuit, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” beginning when she was a college student in 1994.

Normally, the Associated Press does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they report it publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.

For anyone who has been sexually abused, support is available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.

If you are in immediate danger or are concerned about your safety or that of others around you, call 112.