Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Charged With Sex Trafficking, Racketeering and Transporting for Prostitution

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music After months of accusations of sexual misconduct and other allegations, Sean “Diddy” Combs was charged Tuesday on three counts: racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to legal documents.

He is expected to appear before a judge Tuesday morning, where the charges will be read. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told TMZ outside the the courthouse on Tuesday that he will “fight like hell” to free his client on bail, and assserted that Combs is innocent.

Specifically, Combs and his company are charged with “a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.

This abuse was, at times, verbal, emotional, physical and sexual”; that Combs “assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them”; “used the Combs business, including certain employees, to carry out, facilitate and cover up his abuse and commercial sex”; and alleges that one of the roles of the Combs Enterprise was “preserving, protecting, promoting and enhancing” its and Combs’ power “though violence, use of firearms, threats of violence, coercion and verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.” In the second and third counts, Combs is accused of causing an unnamed victim to “engage in commercial sex acts” and “knowingly transported an individual in interstate and foreign commerce with intent that the individual engage in prostitution,” among other claims.