Sean "Diddy" Combs pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges after his arrest late Monday in New York.
A federal indictment, unsealed Tuesday, claims he hit and abused women for over a decade and presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes.
Combs sat stoically, showing no reaction on his face, as U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky read through the allegations on Tuesday before standing to enter his plea.
“Mr. Combs, do you wish to enter a plea?” Tarnofsky asked.
“Not guilty,” Combs replied.
Combs headed to jail on Tuesday after Tarnofsky ordered him held without bail. Prosecutors wanted him jailed. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sided with the government.
Federal prosecutors called Combs dangerous.
“Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades. He used the vast resources of his company to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes. Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told a court. She also said he had “extensive and exhaustive history of obstruction of justice,” including alleged bribery and witness intimidation.
His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, acknowledged Combs was “not a perfect person.”
"There has been drug use. He has been in toxic relationships,” Agnifilo told the court. The lawyer said Combs was receiving “treatment and therapy for things that he needs treatment and therapy for.”
Agnifilo had said outside court earlier that Combs is innocent, and he argued in court that “the evidence in this case is extremely problematic.”
When authorities raided the home of Combs earlier this year, they seized three defaced AR-15s and ammunition, electronic devices containing images and videos of forced sexual encounters and 1,000 bottles of personal lubricant, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said Tuesday during a press conference revealing disturbing new details of the charges against the hip-hop mogul.
“The indictment alleges that between at least 2008 and the present, Combs abused, threatened and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” Williams said.
“Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and the obstruction of justice.”
Combs was arrested and taken into custody at a Manhattan hotel Monday night and charged with sex trafficking and racketeering.
Williams alleged Combs used force, threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers. Combs, he said, transported or caused victims to be transported over state lines, where he planned and controlled sex performances that often lasted days at a time and involved drugs including ketamine, ecstasy and GHB.
When Combs didn’t get his way, Williams alleged Combs subjected his victims to physical, emotional and verbal abuse, including kicking, hitting, throwing objects at and dragging victims, occasionally by their hair.
He alleged Combs maintained control over his victims by giving them drugs, threatening them with loaded weapons, threatening to take away financial support or housing, monitoring their whereabouts, dictating their physical appearance and promising them career opportunities.
While the indictment alleged Combs did not do all of this on his own, Williams said he could not say who else was involved because the investigation is ongoing.
“This office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be,” he said. “A yaar ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice in the Soutehrn District of New York.”
Combs’s initial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to try to get his client released from custody.
Of Combs, Agnifilo said, “His spirits are good. He’s confident.”
Combs, 54, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.
In November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.
The suit was settled in one day, but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”
Combs and his attorneys, however, denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”
“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.
A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.
In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then-protégé Shyne was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.