NEW YORK (AP) — A federal prosecutor in New York stated Monday that attorneys for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs are on the lookout for causes to delay a intercourse trafficking trial slated to start out in three weeks.
The newest model of the indictment in opposition to Combs, 55, added two new prices this month however he nonetheless hadn’t entered a plea, prosecutors stated. That, plus attainable delays from the routine course of for sharing proof with each side, known as discovery, made prosecutors assume he is perhaps stalling for time, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Christy Slavik stated.
Combs has been locked up with out bail since his September arrest. He entered a not responsible plea once more at Monday’s listening to, however in any other case remained emotionless within the courtroom.
Decide Arun Subramanian instructed Combs’ attorneys they’ve till Wednesday to request a pause within the trial to present time for discovery.
“We are a freight train moving toward trial,” he stated.
Marc Agnifilo, representing Combs, stated the protection would possibly ask for a “very short” two-week adjournment over discovery points, together with the federal government’s failure to ask a key witness to show over 200,000 of her emails fairly than simply letting her spotlight those she thinks are vital.
The newest model of the indictment, returned on April 4, added two new prices and accused Combs of utilizing drive, fraud or coercion to compel a girl to interact in industrial intercourse acts from at the very least 2021 to 2024.
It additionally alleges that Combs was concerned in transporting the lady — recognized solely as “Victim-2” — and different individuals, together with industrial intercourse employees, to interact in prostitution throughout the identical interval.
The brand new prices bolstered an indictment already charging him with racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking.
Federal prosecutors stated the racketeering conspiracy cost includes allegations that Combs sex-trafficked three victims and compelled a fourth, one in every of his staff, into sexual exercise with him.
His attorneys responded to the most recent model of the indictment by saying it added no new allegations or accusers and pertained solely to former long-term girlfriends concerned in consensual relationships.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced and abused girls for years as he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to enlist a community of associates and staff to assist him whereas he silenced victims by blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.
They are saying the Unhealthy Boy Data founder induced feminine victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male intercourse employees in occasions dubbed “Freak Offs.”
