By Michael R. Sisak
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New York (AP)-Federal prosecutors added two positions to the accusation of Sean “Diddy” combs and stated that 4 accusers will testify in opposition to him, increasing the accusations that the imprisoned hip-hop magnate devoted himself to sexual trafficking with a number of girls and as lately as final yr.
An accusation of alternative accuses the combs of use of energy, fraud or coercion to pressure a girl to take part in business sexual acts of not less than 2021 to 2024.
The accusation, returned by a Federal Grand Jury in Manhattan, additionally alleges that Comps was concerned within the transport of girls, recognized solely as “victim-2”, and different folks, together with business intercourse staff, to take part in prostitution throughout the identical interval.
The brand new positions are added to the positions of conspiracy and sexual trafficking of extortion to the combs when it was arrested in September. They improve the whole variety of costs in opposition to them from three to 5.
In a judicial presentation, federal prosecutors stated that the place of extortion conspiracy implies accusations that combs with sexual trafficking of three victims and compelled a room, one in every of its staff, to sexual actions with him.
Combs, 55, denies committing any crime. It’s scheduled to be tried on Might 5 and stays locked with out bail in a federal jail in Brooklyn.
“These are usually not new accusations or new accusers. These are the identical folks, former lengthy -term girlfriends, who had been concerned in consensual relationships,” stated the authorized crew of Combs in a press release. “This was his personal sexual life, outlined by consent, not coercion.”
Friday’s alternative accusation is the third introduced in opposition to the combs.
Within the first, in January, federal prosecutors revealed that their case concerned not less than three girls who stated the combs compelled to take part in business sexual acts. In addition they alleged that the combs confirmed a feminine sufferer for a kidnapping and as soon as hung a girl on an residence balcony.
The accusation of January of ComBs didn’t embrace extra costs, however modified some particulars of the present ones, together with the addition of 4 years to the alleged extortion conspiracy. Prosecutors now say that it started in 2004, not in 2008 as the unique accusation had alleged. An accusation of alternative in March contained minimal adjustments.
Comps declared himself harmless of the primary set of positions, who declare that he coerced and abused girls for years with the assistance of a community of associates and staff whereas silencing the victims by way of blackmail and violence, together with kidnappings, synthetic fires and bodily pool.
Its studying of costs on the brand new positions has not been scheduled. The prosecutors requested on Friday that’s held at their ultimate convention previous to the trial on April 25.
Of their presentation on Friday, prosecutors stated that three of the 4 accusers who’re anticipated to testify have requested that their identities are usually not revealed to the press or the general public and that they’re referred to within the trial utilizing solely pseudonyms.
The accuser known as “Sufferer-1” within the combs accusation paperwork is ready to testify beneath his personal identify, prosecutors stated within the presentation, which was strongly written.
Federal prosecutors declare that the singer and founding father of Dangerous Boy Information “i’l i’l i’lling you” used their “energy and status” as music star to induce victims to the sexual proceedings drugged and produced elaborately with male intercourse staff in occasions known as “followers”.
Central To the Case is a video of March 2016 that reveals the combs hitting and kicking her then girlfriend, the R&B Cassie singer, in a corridor of the Los Angeles resort. Prosecutors argue that the assault occurred throughout a “monster.” The combs attorneys argue that the footage was nothing greater than a “imaginative and prescient of a fancy consensual relationship however decade” between the 2.
The combs attorneys argue that the case ought to by no means have been introduced and are struggling to dismiss a place that entails accusations that it transported a male escort by way of state strains.
“The federal government has invented a felony case based mostly primarily on accusations that Mr. Combs and two of his girlfriends for a very long time have typically introduced a 3rd, a male escort, to his sexual relationship,” Alexandra Ae Shapiro wrote in a presentation in a February court docket.
“Every of the three positions within the case relies on the speculation that any such sexual exercise is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.