Sean “Diddy” Combs Indictment Unsealed with Various Charges

Celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in California, explains the criminal charges in Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ unsealed indictment on CBS News.

Host: Hip hop mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs is in a federal courtroom this morning. The indictment was just unsealed revealing that Combs is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Joining me now is celebrity legal analyst, Christopher C. Melcher, to break this all down for us. Chris is a partner of Walzer Melcher Yoda LLP, which is ranked as a best family law firm in Los Angeles, California.

So Chris, these charges just came in. Explain what they are and what they possibly mean for the rapper.

Diddy’s Sex Trafficking & Racketeering

Christopher Melcher: Well, this is really serious because it’s not just a collection of state crimes that he’s being charged with. This is a federal criminal enterprise and trafficking that he’s being charged with. So he’s got the full weight of the federal government down on him, and they were patient. They took their time after the raids. So this is going to be extremely difficult for him to defend himself against.

Host (00:58): So help me understand something. I mean, generally when you are indicted, you can post bail and you can be out of those facilities in a very short time. But with the seriousness of these charges, how likely is it that he has to spend at least a couple of hours in prison?

Diddy’s Indictment Explained

Christopher Melcher: So the magistrate is looking at primarily will Diddy appear in court as promised for proceedings? And I think there, he’s got a leg up because he has cooperated. He was in New York anticipating this indictment and to surrender himself. So I think that it appears that he would show up for court because he didn’t flee before. The other thing is the protection to the community. So would he pose a threat of committing any other crimes or dissuading witnesses destroying evidence? Now, something happened last night because we were told that the arrest was supposed to happen today, Tuesday, but they accelerated it to Monday night. So something must have happened to accelerate that. I don’t know those details yet, but I would imagine that he would be released on some electronic monitoring and other basic conditions.

Host (02:15): Alright, Chris Melcher, thank you so much for joining us and explaining these very serious charges and what happens next. We appreciate it. Thank you. Alright, let’s get the CBS news, national correspondent Jericka Duncan. She’s standing by outside the courthouse. So Jericka, you’re probably listening into what Chris Melcher, the top family law attorney had to say about what happens next. Bring us up to speed of how things unfolded this morning.

Jericka Duncan : This morning I actually ran into Doug Wigdor. He’s the attorney for Cassie Ventura who brought that lawsuit almost a year ago, claiming that Sean Diddy Combs had abused her, had sexually assaulted her. And then we saw that video. Of course, that came out months later. I asked Mr. Wigdor if he was here because of that case, because of the Combs case. He said yes, but would not offer any comment. That really is important because that begins the beginning of this story. And the legal troubles really for Sean Diddy Combs in a way that we haven’t seen before. She filed that civil lawsuit saying that she had been abused for years by her long time boyfriend/ex-boyfriend. And they were able to settle that. But after that settlement, you saw more and more and more lawsuits of people mainly talking about claims of sexual assault.

(03:31)
So here we have again in this document, I caught the tail end of what our expert was talking about, but the opening line in this indictment says, for decades, Sean Combs abused, threatened, coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.

So that gives us a little inkling into more of what is discussed in this indictment, which was just unsealed moments ago, about 14 pages. Now, I was inside trying to get into the courtroom and one of the attendants said that they’re still trying to figure out which courtroom to have it in, because the initial place they were going to have it in is so small. But as you can imagine, there’s a very large media presence here. There are some fans that we’ve seen blasting his music, blasting Combs’ music. But all in all, we haven’t seen any signs of Combs other than his attorney who did show up within the last hour basically saying that his client wants to defend himself and that there’s more to learn about what he has to say regarding these allegations. But again, the news just breaking based off of the unsealed indictment. We now know those charges, racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution. We hope to learn a little bit more once the court proceedings actually get underway. Vlad.