Facing 7 more lawsuits, Diddy protests a ‘fresh wave of publicity’

NEW YORK (AP) — Seven new lawsuits have been filed towards Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, together with one alleging the rape of a 13-year-old lady. They arrive as his legal professionals tried once more Monday to get him freed on bail, and complained {that a} “recent wave of publicity” is endangering his proper to a good prison trial.

Within the lawsuits filed Sunday in state and federal courts, 4 males and three girls, all nameless, allege they had been sexually assaulted by Combs at events over the past 20 years.

Combs, 54, has pleaded not responsible to federal intercourse trafficking prices contained in an indictment unsealed the day after his Sept. 16 arrest. Prices embody allegations he coerced and abused girls for years, aided by associates and staff, and silenced victims by means of blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.

He has remained incarcerated pending a Could 5 trial after two judges denied bail in rulings being appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals.

Combs’ legal professionals requested a choose Sunday to order potential witnesses and their legal professionals to cease making statements that would forestall a good trial.

“Because the Court docket is conscious, Mr. Combs has been the goal of an never-ending stream of allegations by potential witnesses and their counsel within the press,” they wrote. “These potential witnesses and their legal professionals have made quite a few inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed toward assassinating Mr. Combs’s character within the press.”

The most recent lawsuits are drawn from what legal professionals say are greater than 100 accusers who’re planning authorized motion towards Combs. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Tony Buzbee introduced the deliberate litigation at an Oct. 1 information convention and posted a 1-800 quantity for accusers to name.

As earlier than, Combs’ representatives dismissed the newest lawsuits as “clear makes an attempt to garner publicity.” They stated Combs and his authorized workforce “have full confidence within the info, their authorized defenses, and the integrity of the judicial course of.”

Combs “has by no means sexually assaulted anybody — grownup or minor, man or girl,” they added.

One of many lawsuits filed Sunday alleges {that a} 13-year-old lady who was invited to a celebration by a limousine driver after the Video Music Awards in Manhattan in September 2000 was raped by a “male celeb” after which by Combs as people recognized solely as “Movie star A,” a male, and “Movie star B,” a feminine, watched.

One other lawsuit alleged that Combs sexually assaulted a 17-year-old male at a Manhattan lodge penthouse social gathering in 2022.

Within the lawsuits, it was alleged that the plaintiffs believed that they had been fed drinks laced with medication earlier than they had been assaulted.

In the meantime, legal professionals for Combs on Monday informed the 2nd Circuit in a submitting that he’ll renew his bail utility earlier than the decrease courtroom primarily based on “important modified circumstances.” They stated the problems embody “constitutional issues stemming from his circumstances of confinement and proof contained in not too long ago produced discovery.”

In a submitting final week, prosecutors informed the appeals courtroom that judges denied bail after proof confirmed Combs “used methodical and complicated means to silence and intimidate witnesses all through the racketeering conspiracy and in the course of the Authorities’s investigation.”