Diddy caused shock in court after dramatically changing his appearance with gray hair and a white beard as he denied the updated set of allegations against him.
The disgraced hip hop mogul had apparently stopped coloring his hair and let his natural color come through with just over a month to go until his trial.
He looked noticeably older and appeared to have put on some weight as he walked into Manhattan’s federal court wearing a tan prison issue top and pants.
Diddy said ‘not guilty’ when the judge read out the updated indictment which included claims of ‘forced labor’.
But he was all smiles in court and waved to one of his sons and a daughter who sat in the public gallery.
The 55-year-old, whose real name is Sean Combs, is accused of running a decade-long criminal empire including orgies called ‘Freak Offs’.
Women participants were allegedly drugged and forced into marathon sex sessions, sometimes with male prostitutes.
Diddy has denied racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Diddy caused shock in court after dramatically changing his appearance with gray hair and a gray beard as he denied the updated set of allegations against him
The disgraced hip hop mogul had apparently stopped coloring his hair and let his natural color come through with just over a month to go until his trial
He is due to go on trial on May 5th and until then he is being held at the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The updated indictment was filed earlier this month and added the ‘forced labor’ claims under the racketeering charges.
The document says that Diddy and his associates ‘maintained control’ over some staff by not paying them and forcing them to work ‘long hours with little sleep’.
The indictment states that Combs ’caused these employees to believe they would be harmed – including by losing their jobs – if they did not comply with his demands’.
It states: ‘With respect to one employee, Combs used physical force, psychological harm, financial harm and reputational harm, and /or threats of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts with Combs’.
Diddy was arrested in September last year, four months after his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against him alleging similar conduct to his criminal case.
While the lawsuit was settled the next day, Diddy’s reputation was shattered soon after when CNN obtained a chilling video of him allegedly beating Ventura in 2016 at a hotel.
The footage showed him repeatedly hitting and kicking her in a corridor while wearing a towel.
The hearing is expected to deal with claims by Diddy’s lawyers that the footage of him assaulting his ex Cassie Ventura was ‘substantially altered in significant respects’
CNN has denied doctoring the clip and said in a statement that it ‘never altered the video’
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, 55, was arrested and charged on September 16, 2024, for sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution
Diddy’s son King Combs was spotted at his father’s pretrial hearing along with one of his sisters
The hearing is expected to deal with claims by Diddy’s lawyers that the footage was ‘substantially altered in significant respects’.
They claimed that a forensic analysis showed it could have been sped up and that would be grounds for it to be excluded from the trial.
In court papers, Diddy’s attorneys said: ‘CNN purchased the only known copy of the hotel’s surveillance footage, uploaded that footage into a free editing software, altered the video; and then destroyed the original footage’.
CNN has denied doctoring the clip and said in a statement that it ‘never altered the video’.
The TV network said it did not destroy the original of the video and said that was ‘retained by the source’.
Diddy himself has addressed the video, saying in a post on Instagram shortly after it was aired that ‘my behavior on that video is inexcusable’.
‘I take full responsibility for my actions in that video,’ he said. ‘I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, (and) I’m disgusted now’.
Among those criticizing Diddy for trying to exclude the CNN video from the case is Ventura’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ daughters, Jessie and D’Lila Combs, are trying to keep their lives as normal as possible while their father remains behind bars, cheering on their high school’s basketball team
Jane Doe claimed in a since-dropped lawsuit that she was raped by Jay-Z and Diddy after the 2000 VMAs in New York City. Jay-Z, who strongly denied the claims, is now suing her and her lawyers for defamation
In a statement he said: ‘It is not surprising that Combs would make a disingenuous argument to exclude the disturbing video from being shown to the jury in the upcoming trial.
‘I am confident that the video fairly and accurately represents what happened, will be admitted into evidence, and that Combs will be held accountable for his depravity’.
Diddy has been hit with dozens of civil lawsuits which allege similar claims – all of which he denied.
Among them is a woman who claims that Diddy and Jay-Z raped her in 2000 at an after party for the VMA awards party.
The woman, who is now 38, alleged that Jay-Z put his hand over her mouth and told her to ‘cut the s***’ before overpowering her.
In an interview with NBC, the woman admitted inconsistencies with her memory but stood by her account.
Weeks later the woman dropped her claim against Jay-Z, who strongly denied the claims and is now suing her and her lawyers for defamation.
