By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with seven new sexual abuse lawsuits, as his attorneys requested the decide overseeing the music mogul’s felony intercourse trafficking case for a gag order in opposition to Combs’ accusers and their attorneys.
The civil lawsuits have been made public on Sunday and Monday by 4 males and three ladies over alleged misconduct in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas relationship to 2000 however primarily in 2022, the accusers’ lawyer Tony Buzbee mentioned on Fb (NASDAQ:).
Some lawsuits mentioned unidentified celebrities additionally assaulted Combs’ accusers.
Combs, 54, faces not less than two dozen civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct, together with 13 from Buzbee’s agency.
Combs has denied wrongdoing. He has additionally pleaded not responsible within the felony case, and is interesting his greater than month-long detention in a Brooklyn jail after being denied bail twice.
The brand new lawsuits compound the authorized issues for Combs, who in keeping with prosecutors coerced victims into taking part in intercourse acts in opposition to their will, bribing and intimidating them into protecting quiet, and using his workers to cover all of it.
‘READY TO PARTY’
In a single new lawsuit, the plaintiff Jane Doe mentioned she was 13 when Combs drugged and assaulted her at an afterparty for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York.
She mentioned Combs and an unnamed male celeb vaginally raped her whereas an unnamed feminine celeb regarded on, after Combs proclaimed “You are ready to party!”
One other accuser, John Doe, mentioned he was a 17-year-old aspiring artist making small speak with Combs at a 2022 occasion in a Manhattan resort penthouse, with Combs assuring him that “he could make him a star.”
Doe mentioned Combs drugged him with a drink and later assaulted him, together with by grabbing his genitals, in a room the place others engaged in group intercourse.
In response to the lawsuits, Combs’ attorneys referred to an announcement addressing Buzbee’s earlier lawsuits.
“Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process,” the attorneys mentioned. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”
Buzbee’s agency mentioned it represents greater than 150 of Combs’ accusers.
CHARACTER ASSASSINATION
Combs faces a Might 5, 2025 felony trial on three felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
The gag order request from Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ main lawyer, seeks to dam potential authorities witnesses and their attorneys from making statements that considerably intervene with Combs’ proper to a good trial.
Agnifilo objected to quite a few statements “aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’ character in the press,” together with false allegations of sexual abuse of kids, and requested that prosecutors reveal whether or not they licensed such statements.
A spokesperson for U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams in Manhattan, whose workplace is prosecuting Combs, declined to remark.
5 of the brand new lawsuits have been filed in federal courtroom, and two have been filed in a New York state courtroom, all in Manhattan.