Ahead of Diddy's racketeering and sex trafficking trial next month, prosecutors have hit the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder with two more criminal charges.
As reported by Rolling Stone, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against Diddy. He's now facing an additional charge of sex trafficking and one additional charge of transportation to engage in prostitution. That's in addition to the other charges he was already facing: one count each of the two previously mentioned charges and one count of racketeering.
In a statement, the legal team for Diddy clarified that the charges are not from new accusers. "These are not new accusers; these are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, involved in consensual relationships," his lawyers said. "This was their private sex life." Diddy's legal team has described the two victims mentioned in the indictment as former girlfriends. The identity of Victim-2 in the indictment is unclear, but his team said Victim-1 is Cassie.
The new charge of sex trafficking accuses Diddy of having "recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, and maintained Victim-2, and attempted, aided and abetted, and willfully caused Victim-2, to engage in commercial sex acts, knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that Victim-2 was engaging in commercial sex acts as a result of force, fraud, and coercion."
Diddy pleaded not guilty to the previous charges against him in a court appearance last month. His trial is tentatively scheduled to start on May 5 and the jury selection process is expected to start soon.