NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Friday added two charges to Sean “Diddy” Combs ' indictment and said they expect four accusers to testify against him, expanding on allegations that the jailed hip-hop mogul engaged in sex trafficking with multiple women and as recently as last year.
A superseding indictment accuses Combs of using force, fraud or coercion to compel a woman to engage in commercial sex acts from at least 2021 to 2024.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, also alleges that Combs was involved in transporting the woman — identified only as “Victim-2” — and other people, including commercial sex workers, to engage in prostitution during the same period.
The new charges are in addition to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges filed against Combs when he was arrested in September. They increase the total number of charges against him from three to five.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors said the racketeering conspiracy charge involves allegations that Combs sex-trafficked three victims and forced a fourth, one of his employees, into sexual activity with him.
Combs, 55, denies committing any crimes. He is scheduled to stand trial May 5 and remains locked up without bail at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
“These are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships,” Combs' legal team said in a statement. "This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”
Friday’s superseding indictment is the third filed against Combs.
In the first, in January, federal prosecutors disclosed that their case involved at least three women whom they said Combs forced to engage in commercial sex acts. They also alleged Combs showed a firearm to a female victim during a kidnapping and once dangled a woman over an apartment balcony.
Combs' January indictment didn't include additional charges but modified some details of the existing ones, including adding four years to the alleged racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors now say it started in 2004, not 2008 as the original indictment had alleged. A superseding indictment in March contained minimal changes.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges, which allege that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
His arraignment on the new charges has not been scheduled. Prosecutors asked Friday that it be held at his final pretrial conference on April 25.
In their filing Friday, prosecutors said three of the four accusers who are expected to testify have asked that their identities not be revealed to the press or the public and that they instead be referred to by at trial using only pseudonyms.
The accuser referred to as “Victim-1” in Combs’ charging documents is prepared to testify under her own name, prosecutors said in the filing, which was heavily redacted.
Federal prosecutors allege the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer and Bad Boy Records founder used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Central to the case is a March 2016 video showing Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway. Prosecutors contend the assault happened during a “Freak Off." Combs lawyers argue the footage was nothing more than a "glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship” between the two.
Combs' lawyers contend the case should never have been brought and are fighting to dismiss a charge involving allegations he transported a male escort across state lines.
“The government has concocted a criminal case based primarily on allegations that Mr. Combs and two of his longtime girlfriends sometimes brought a third party — a male escort — into their sexual relationship,” Combs lawyer Alexandra A.E. Shapiro wrote in a February court filing.
“Each of the three charges in the case are premised on the theory that this type of sexual activity is a federal crime,” Shapiro added.
FILE - Depicted in this courtroom sketch, Sean "Diddy" Combs, sits at the defense table with one of his attorneys, Teny Garagos, right, during his bail hearing, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)
A U.S.-Russian dual national imprisoned in Russia on treason charges was freed Thursday in exchange for a Russian man jailed on smuggling charges in the U.S., a prisoner swap that comes as Moscow and Washington have made efforts to repair ties.
Ksenia Karelina, also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. She was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted of treason on charges stemming from a donation of about $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine. American authorities have called the case “absolutely ludicrous.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the country’s main security and counterespionage agency, said that dual Russian-German citizen Arthur Petrov was released as part of a swap. Petrov was arrested in Cyprus in August 2023 at the request of the U.S. on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia and extradited to the U.S. a year later.
Karelina was among a growing number of Americans arrested in Russia in recent years as tensions between Moscow and Washington spiked over the war in Ukraine. Her release is the latest in a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges Russia and the United States carried out in the last three years — and the second since President Donald Trump took office less than three months ago and reversed Washington's policy of isolating Russia in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.
Russian and U.S. diplomats are sitting down Thursday for another round of talks in Istanbul on improving diplomatic ties.
In February, Russia released American teacher Marc Fogel, imprisoned on drug charges, in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance peace negotiations. That same month, Russia released another American just days after arresting him on drug smuggling charges.
Karelina, a former ballet dancer, reportedly obtained U.S. citizenship after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. She was arrested when she returned to Russia to visit her family last year.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, accused her of “proactively" collecting money for a Ukrainian organization that was supplying gear to Kyiv's forces. The First Department, a Russian rights group, said the charges stemmed from a $51.80 donation to a U.S. charity aiding Ukraine.
“I am overjoyed to hear that the love of my life, Ksenia Karelina is on her way home from wrongful detention in Russia,” Karelina’s fiancé, Chris van Heerden, said in a statement. “She has endured a nightmare for 15 months and I cannot wait to hold her. Our dog, Boots, is also eagerly awaiting her return.”
He thanked Trump and Trump administration envoys, as well as prominent public figures who had championed her case.
Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said she was flying to the U.S. after a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The FSB said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin had pardoned Karelina before the swap. It said that Petrov, who was facing a 20-year prison term in the U.S., was exchanged for Karelina at the Abu Dhabi international airport with the UAE mediation.
The agency released a video that showed Karelina being escorted to a plane somewhere in Russia and featured of what appeared to be the scene of exchange at the Abu Dhabu airport. The same video showed Petrov undergoing medical checkups on a flight to Russia and saying he was feeling normal.
Petrov was accused by the U.S. Justice Department of involvement in a scheme to procure microelectronics subject to U.S. export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier of critical electronic components for the country's weapons industries.
The exchange was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing a statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe, who it said was on hand for the swap at an airport in Abu Dhabi.
An email seeking comment was sent to the CIA in the early hours of Thursday.
Abu Dhabi was the scene of another high-profile prisoner swap between Russia and the United States. In December 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner was traded for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The UAE has been a mediator in prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, while the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai has become home to many Russians and Ukrainian who fled there after the start of Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.(AP Photo/File)
