US rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs charged with sex trafficking, racketeering
Al Jazeera
Unsealed federal indictment against hip-hop mogul says he ‘engaged in persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse’.
A federal indictment against American rapper, music producer and fashion designer Sean “Diddy” Combs has been unsealed, showing the hip-hop artist is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
The charges were revealed on Tuesday, a day after Combs was arrested in Manhattan following a six-month investigation by federal authorities. The indictment said Combs “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals”.
That included years of engaging in threatening and coercive acts towards women “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”, the indictment said.
The most extreme allegation was that the music star induced men and women to take part in drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances known as “freak offs”. The indictment also details an attack on Combs’s former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie.
The criminal indictment was handed down after several lawsuits were filed accusing Combs of a pattern of physical and sexual abuse that continued for years. His lawyer Marc Agnifilo has broadly denied those claims.
