Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs pleaded not guilty Tuesday to sex trafficking charges, and a judge denied him bail and ordered him detained pending trial in an explosive case against one of music’s most influential figures.
Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” for decades, according to the unsealed indictment that led to his Sept. 16 arrest on three felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
No victims were identified in the 14-page document, but the March 2016 incident in which Combs — also known as “Diddy” and “Puff Daddy” — was captured on surveillance video hitting, kicking and throwing a vase at then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel was referenced. It’s alleged that the Bad Boy Entertainment founder attempted to bribe a member of hotel security who intervened to ensure silence.
The indictment, filed on Sept. 12, contains a litany of allegations against Combs, claiming he “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals” after becoming a star in the 1990s and that abuse was “verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual.” He allegedly used his various businesses, headquartered at times in New York and Los Angeles, and employees to cover up alleged criminal behavior, including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
His attorney Marc Agnifilo said outside that his client is innocent, adding that his “spirits are good” and “he’s confident” in his case.
On Monday, Agnifilo said in a statement, “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children and working to uplift the Black community.”
It concluded: “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
According to the government, Combs would use his power to “lure female victims into [his] orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.” Then through “force, threats of force, and coercion” the victims were made “to engage in extended sex acts” with multiple “male commercial sex workers” in sex sessions he dubbed “freak offs.”
Combs is accused of arranging, directing and masturbating during the “sex performances,” which he would often record, sometimes unbeknownst to the victims. The “freak offs” would last for days with multiple sex workers involved.
Combs allegedly distributed drugs to the victims to keep them “obedient and compliant.”
Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Tuesday these drugs were narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB.
After the days-long sex sessions, “Combs and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion.”
Combs’s employees allegedly arranged for the sex workers to cross state lines. They’d also book hotels, stock rooms with “freak off supplies” and arrange for travel for victims.
The recordings Combs made were used as “collateral” to ensure the “silence of the victims,” according to the indictment.
The allegations are similar to those outlined by Ventura in her 2023 lawsuit against Combs.
According to the indictment, when Combs’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided in March 2024, authorities seized firearms and ammunition including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers and a drum magazine.
They also “seized various freak off supplies, including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.”
The government claims Combs’s “pattern of abuse” included “numerous occasions” from “about 2009 and continuing for years” in which he “assaulted women” by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.”
It claims the assaults “were, at times, witnessed by others,” including the one against Ventura which he took responsibility for earlier this year after a surveillance video of the 2016 attack was made public. It’s alleged that Combs attempted to bribe a member of the hotel security staff that witnessed the incident.
The indictment claims that Combs’s “violence” was not limited to the female victims, but extended to his employees and people who witnessed his abuse.
The indictment states Combs used guns, kidnapping and arson to control victims.
While it doesn’t name an alleged arson victim, in Ventura’s lawsuit, she claimed that when she briefly dated Kid Cudi in 2012, Combs threatened to blow up Cudi’s car. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway,” her lawsuit stated.
His team had been trying to negotiate his release from custody pending his trial on three federal counts, with Combs offering to post a $50 million bond using his Miami home as collateral, NBC News reported, with details from a proposed bail package filed by his defense team.
The rapper, whose career has been derailed over the past 10 months amid the allegations, also offered to wear a GPS monitor and limit travel to New York City and Miami.
Documents revealed that Combs is in the process of selling his private plane. He also recently listed his Los Angeles home, in the Holmby Hills neighborhood, that was raided in March.
Dylan Stableford contributed to this report.
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522.
