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NEW YORK (AP) — A federal prosecutor in New York said Monday that lawyers for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs are looking for reasons to delay a sex trafficking trial slated to start in three weeks.
The latest version of the indictment against Combs, 55, added two new charges this month but he still hadn't entered a plea, prosecutors said. That, plus possible delays from the routine process for sharing evidence with both sides, called discovery, made prosecutors think he might be stalling for time, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said.
Combs has been locked up without bail since his September arrest. He entered a not guilty plea again at Monday's hearing, but otherwise remained impassive in the courtroom.
Judge Arun Subramanian told Combs' lawyers they have until Wednesday to request a pause in the trial to give time for discovery.
“We are a freight train moving toward trial,” he said.
Marc Agnifilo, representing Combs, said the defense might ask for a “very short” two-week adjournment over discovery issues, including the government's failure to ask a key witness to turn over 200,000 of her emails rather than just letting her highlight the ones she thinks are important.
The latest version of the indictment, returned on April 4, added two new charges and accused Combs of using force, fraud or coercion to compel a woman to engage in commercial sex acts from at least 2021 to 2024.
It 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 bolstered an indictment already charging him with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
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.
His lawyers responded to the latest version of the indictment by saying it added no new allegations or accusers and pertained only to former long-term girlfriends involved in consensual relationships.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced and abused women for years as he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to enlist a network of associates and employees to help him while he silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
They say the Bad Boy Records founder induced female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”
