Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs pleads not guilty to new accusations

Music executive Sean "Diddy" Combs, who has been in prison since September 2024 and is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, had pled 'not guilty' to additional, superseding indictments brought against him. The hearing occurred on March 14 in a Manhattan court, as reported by Variety.

Combs' superseding indictment, filed on March 6, alleged that the music producer forcefully made his employees work long hours under physical and financial threats as well as psychological distress, according to ABC News. Combs was also accused of sexual misconduct against an employee. CNN accessed the indictment, a part of which stated,

"With respect to one employee, Combs used physical force, psychological harm, financial harm, and reputational harm, and/or threads of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts with Combs"

On March 14, at Diddy's pretrial hearing, the businessman and rapper pled 'not guilty' to the superseding indictment, according to reporters from NBC News.

Sean "Diddy" Combs' earlier superseding indictment

Previously, Diddy, who was also charged with transportation with the intent to engage in prostitution, faced another superseding indictment related to racketeering accusations against him. The first superseding indictment was issued on January 30, 2025, extending the duration of Combs' alleged involvement in racketeering to a total of ten years, covering the period from 2004 to 2024, according to the Associated Press. Earlier, Combs had been accused of engaging in racketeering starting in 2008.

In this superseding indictment, Diddy was also alleged to have dangled an unknown victim off a hotel balcony. The indictment also accused Combs of physical abuse and of threatening and coercing female victims to engage in prostitution, as per the Associated Press report.

Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, responded to the superseding indictment in January in a statement quoted in The New York Times, saying,

"The prosecution’s theory remains flawed. The government has added the ridiculous theory that two of Mr. Combs’s former girlfriends were not girlfriends at all, but were prostitutes. Mr. Combs is as committed as ever to fighting these charges and winning at trial.”

The date is set for Diddy's trial

According to NBC News, Judge Arun Subramanian also set the date for Diddy's trial in the hearing on March 14. The trial is provisionally set to begin on May 12, and jury selection will start on May 5.

The judge also directed both the prosecution and the defense to reach a unanimous agreement regarding the use of a contentious tape in the trial that allegedly shows Combs assaulting his former girlfriend or to file opposing motions in case of disagreement, according to Variety. CNN released the video in question and showed Combs attacking Cassie Ventura at a hotel in 2016. However, CNN faced accusations of altering the video and destroying the original.

CNN, however, vehemently denied the allegation. In a statement quoted by ABC News, a spokesperson for CNN said,

“CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source. CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”

At the time of the video's release in May 2024, Diddy had come forward with a public apology and condemned his actions.