Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial date set in federal sex trafficking case

A date has been set for the trial of rapper and Bad Boy Records head Sean “Diddy” Combs. 

Combs has pleaded not guilty to a host of federal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering. Manhattan federal court Judge Arun Subramanian set Combs’ trial date for May 5 at a hearing on Thursday. 

At that hearing, attorneys for Combs accused the prosecution of leaking evidence to the media to prejudice the public against their client. They alleged that the government leaked a 2016 video of Combs assaulting R&B singer Cassie to “taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”

The clip, shared by CNN earlier this year, showed Combs repeatedly kicking his former girlfriend after shoving her to the ground in a hotel hallway. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs’ legal team’s claims were “baseless.” 

“Not a single one of those alleged leaks are from members of the prosecution team,” Johnson said, per the Associated Press.

In addition to the criminal charges, Diddy faces well over 100 civil lawsuits from people alleging sexual assault. In spite of all that, Diddy’s mother recently defended her son on Sunday and accused the media and others of engaging in a “public lynching.” 

“It is heartbreaking to see my son judged not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies,” she wrote. “To bear witness [to] what seems like a public lynching of my son before he’s had the opportunity to prove his innocence is a pain too unbearable to put into words.”