Sean “Diddy” Combs has been underneath investigation for at the very least a 12 months after being accused of sexual assault by a number of folks.
The rapper and music mogul, 54, made headlines in November 2023 after his ex-girlfriend Cassie accused him of sexual abuse in a bombshell lawsuit. She accused Diddy of beating her, forcing her to take medicine and have intercourse with male prostitutes on digital camera. She alleged that the incidents came about at Diddy’s houses throughout the U.S.
Within the lawsuit, Cassie additionally claimed that Diddy threatened to explode Child Cudi’s automobile after she had moved on with him following their 2018 cut up. (Cassie has been married to Alex Fantastic since 2019.)
Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman denied the accusations on his behalf on the time, stating that Cassie’s lawsuit was “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ fame and [is] looking for a payday.”
Paras Griffin/Getty Photos Whereas Sean “Diddy” Combs has fervently denied ex-girlfriend Cassie’s rape and assault allegations, a number of girls have come ahead with related claims of alleged misconduct by the music mogul. Us Weekly confirmed in November 2023 that Cassie (actual identify Casandra Ventura) filed a lawsuit in opposition to Diddy, accusing him of rape and repeated bodily […]
The case was settled simply in the future after Cassie’s submitting. “I’ve determined to resolve this matter amicably on phrases that I’ve some stage of management,” she advised Us Weekly in a press release by means of her legal professional Douglas Wigdor. “I wish to thank my household, followers and attorneys for his or her unwavering help.”
In a press release of his personal, Diddy mentioned: “We’ve got determined to resolve this matter amicably. I want Cassie and her household all one of the best. Love.”
Scroll down for a timeline of Diddy’s sexual assault authorized troubles:
November 2023
Following Cassie’s case settlement, a 2004 New York Journal interview with Kimora Lee Simmons resurfaced, during which she claimed that Diddy “threatened to hit her” whereas she was pregnant. The interview famous that Diddy “finally acquired down on his knees in public to apologize.” (Kimora is a mom to 5 youngsters, whom she shares with a number of companions. Diddy didn’t handle her feedback on the time.))
Diddy was quickly hit with one other lawsuit from a lady named Joi Dickerson-Neal. In court docket docs obtained by Us filed on November 23, Dickerson-Neal claimed that the musician “drugged, sexually assaulted and abused” her when she was a school pupil in 1991 and was a sufferer of “revenge porn” Diddy created and launched. Diddy’s spokesperson referred to as the lawsuit a “cash seize” in a press release to CNN.
December 2023
An nameless lady, dubbed Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit in opposition to the music mogul claiming she was sex-trafficked and gang-raped by Diddy and different males when she was 17 years previous in 2008. She allegedly flew out to satisfy him in New York Metropolis and was given “copious quantities of medicine and alcohol” earlier than the boys compelled themselves on her, in response to court docket docs obtained by Us.
Diddy declared that “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” in a press release to Us on the time, including, “For the final couple of weeks, I’ve sat silently and watched folks attempt to assassinate my character, destroy my fame and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made in opposition to me by people on the lookout for a fast payday. Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged. I’ll struggle for my identify, my household and for the reality.”
February 2024
Diddy as soon as once more denied any wrongdoing after being accused of sexual assault in one other lawsuit, this one filed by music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones. Jones alleged that in his time residing and touring with Diddy from September 2022 to November 2023, he witnessed and recorded Diddy and his workers “partaking in critical criminality.” Jones claimed he was sexually assaulted by Diddy in additional than one of many rapper’s houses, in addition to on a yacht rented by Diddy.
Diddy referred to as Jones — who was looking for $30 million in damages — “a liar” in a press release by means of his legal professional Shawn Holley. “We’ve got overwhelming, indeniable proof that his claims are full lies. We’ll handle these outlandish allegations in court docket and take all acceptable motion in opposition to those that make them,” Holley added.
March 2024
Diddy’s Los Angeles and Miami houses had been raided in reference to a federal intercourse trafficking investigation by Homeland Safety. Diddy was not current at his houses on the time of the raids however was later discovered boarding a personal jet at a Miami airport. Two of his sons had been reportedly detained within the raid on his L.A. property however had been launched with out prices.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level drive as search warrants had been executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” Diddy’s legal professional Aaron Dyer mentioned in a press release to Us, denying that any of his relations had been arrested. “There is no such thing as a excuse for the extreme present of drive and hostility exhibited by authorities or the best way his kids and staff had been handled.”
Following the raids, it was revealed that Diddy’s eldest son, Justin Combs, was named in an amended grievance filed by Jones. Within the court docket docs, obtained by Us, the phrase “intercourse trafficking” was talked about 50 occasions. Reps for Justin mentioned in a press release that he “categorically denies these absurd allegations,” per NBC Information.
Years earlier than two of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ houses had been raided in connection to a federal intercourse trafficking investigation, there was dialog about what went on on the rapper’s residences. After the March 2024 raid made headlines, a clip resurfaced of Usher recalling his expertise residing with Diddy as a teen. “I acquired an opportunity to […]
April 2024
Diddy’s youngest son, Christian “King” Combs, was accused of sexually assaulting a lady who labored on a yacht Diddy chartered for a 2022 journey in a Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom lawsuit. The girl, Grace O’Marcaigh, additionally accused King of sexual harassment and emotional misery and Diddy for aiding and abetting.
Diddy’s legal professional Dyer slammed the lawsuit in a press release to Us. “We’ve got not seen this lady’s declare however I’m positive we will anticipate the identical form of manufactured lies … simply as we noticed in Rodney Jones’ lawsuit — which has but to be served.”
Later that month, information broke that Diddy’s alleged drug mule, Brendan Paul, was arrested for cocaine and marijuana possession. Paul was later charged with one felony depend of drug possession. (Paul averted jail time however was ordered to enter a six-month drug diversion program the next month.)
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Cassie. ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Photos
Could 2024
Lower than per week after Diddy filed a movement to dismiss Jane Doe’s December 2023 lawsuit in opposition to him, CNN launched safety footage from 2016 allegedly exhibiting Diddy bodily assaulting Cassie in a now-closed Los Angeles resort. Within the clip, Diddy was proven allegedly hitting and kicking Cassie, in addition to throwing an object at her.
The Los Angeles District Lawyer’s workplace defined in a press release that Diddy couldn’t be charged for the safety footage “because the conduct would have occurred past the timeline the place against the law of assault may be prosecuted.”
Diddy addressed the footage in an Instagram video, telling followers, “My conduct on that video is inexcusable. I take full accountability for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted.” Although he didn’t point out Cassie by identify, he captioned the put up, “I’m sorry.”
A member of Cassie’s authorized crew, Meredith Firetog, criticized Diddy’s apology video in a press release to Us. “When Cassie and a number of different girls got here ahead, he denied all the pieces and prompt that his victims had been on the lookout for a payday,” she mentioned. “That he was solely compelled to ‘apologize’ as soon as his repeated denials had been confirmed false exhibits his pathetic desperation, and nobody will likely be swayed by his disingenuous phrases.”
Cassie addressed the safety video in a prolonged social media assertion, writing, “Thanks to everybody that has taken the time to take this matter critically. My solely ask is that EVERYONE open you hear to believing victims the primary time. It takes plenty of coronary heart to inform the reality out of a state of affairs that you simply had been powerless in.”
Some corporations look like distancing themselves from Sean “Diddy” Combs because the rapper continues to face sexual assault allegations. In current months, a number of girls have come ahead to share allegations of misconduct by the music mogul. One particular person who filed a lawsuit was his ex-girlfriend Cassie. (The exes dated on and off from 2007 […]
Could 2024
Diddy continued to face extra allegations after a lady named April Lampros accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her a number of occasions in a brand new lawsuit. The alleged abuse came about after she met Diddy in NYC in 1995 throughout her time as a pupil on the Trend Institute of Know-how.
Lampros’ lawsuit alleged that she was as soon as compelled by Diddy to have intercourse along with his late ex-girlfriend, Kim Porter, as he watched and that the music mogul recorded certainly one of their sexual encounters with out her data.
Diddy moved to dismiss Lampros’ case in August 2024, arguing that a few of her claims had been time barred and didn’t apply to New York permitting earlier intercourse offenses to be prosecuted. Lampros filed a cross-motion one month later, asking for permission so as to add extra particulars to her case relating to the alleged time barred claims.
Diddy was additionally accused of sexual assault by mannequin Crystal McKinney for an alleged incident that came about in 2003. In her lawsuit, McKinney claimed that Diddy compelled her to carry out oral intercourse regardless of denying his development and that she was subsequently blackballed from the modeling business. (Diddy’s crew didn’t reply to Us’ request for remark for both lawsuit on the time.)
McKinney, Dickerson-Neal and Jane Doe got here ahead about their experiences in a Rolling Stone report. “It isn’t about cash,” Dickerson-Neal advised the outlet of their respective lawsuits in opposition to Diddy. “It’s about ensuring the world sees that this man who rose to the extent of an ‘icon’ is definitely sick and has left so many victims in [the wake of his] unpunished disgusting conduct for years.”
August 2024
Adria English filed a prison grievance in opposition to Diddy after accusing him of intercourse trafficking her from 2004 to 2009 in a July 2024 lawsuit.
“Ms. English could be very excited and cautiously optimistic about her journey to justice beginning with the submitting of her civil lawsuit on July 3, 2024, and now with the submitting of a prison grievance with the Miami Seaside Police Division,” Ariel E. Mitchell advised Us in a press release. “Ms. English hopes to file an extra prison grievance in New York however has been precluded so far as New York requires a person to be in particular person as a way to file a prison grievance.”
Diddy’s legal professional Jonathan Davis referred to as English’s accusations “baseless” in a press release to Leisure Weekly one month prior, including, “Regardless of what number of lawsuits are filed, it gained’t change the truth that Mr. Combs has by no means sexually assaulted or intercourse trafficked anybody. We dwell in a world the place anybody can file a lawsuit for any purpose and with none proof. Luckily, a good and neutral judicial course of exists to search out the reality and Mr. Combs is assured he’ll prevail in opposition to these and different baseless claims in court docket.”
Along with being a rapper and entrepreneur, Diddy is the proud dad to seven kids. The rapper began his household in 1993 when he and dressmaker Misa Hylton welcomed a child boy. Diddy later moved on with mannequin Kim Porter. The twosome had an on-again, off-again relationship from 1994 to 2007, throughout which […]
September 2024
Former Danity Kane member Daybreak Richard filed a lawsuit in opposition to Diddy accusing him of sexual abuse, manipulation and terrorizing her. She additionally alleged that she witnessed Diddy abuse Cassie and Porter in entrance of her, and claimed Diddy promised to advance her singing profession if she gave into his sexual calls for following her time on MTV’s Making The Band.
One other of Diddy’s attorneys Erica Wolff famous that he was “shocked and disenchanted” by the lawsuit in a press release on the time. “It’s unlucky that Ms. Richard has solid their 20-year friendship apart to try to get cash from him, however Mr. Combs is confidently standing on fact and appears ahead to proving that in court docket,” she added.
Later that month, Diddy was ordered to pay a $100 million default judgment for a civil lawsuit filed by a Michigan inmate who accused him of sexual assault. The default judgment was ordered after Diddy failed to seem in a digital listening to. Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith accused the rapper of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a 1997 social gathering in Detroit. Diddy proceeded to problem the ruling by submitting an emergency movement to vacate the default judgment. He additionally filed to dissolve a preliminary injunction and momentary restraining order.
With authorities apparently armed with needed proof to maneuver ahead, Diddy was arrested in NYC on September 16 after a grand jury indicted him on prices of intercourse trafficking and racketeering. The indictment accuses Diddy of abusing and threatening girls to “to satisfy his sexual wishes, defend his fame and conceal his conduct,” with some incidents relationship again to 2009, in response to new paperwork.
“To take action, Combs relied on the workers, sources and affect of the multifaceted enterprise empire that he led and managed — making a prison enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and tried to interact in, amongst different crimes, intercourse trafficking, compelled labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice,” the indictment said.
Diddy plead not responsible to the intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices on the time.
“We’re disenchanted with the choice to pursue what we consider is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace,” his legal professional Marc Agnifilo advised Us in a press release.
He added: “He’s an imperfect particular person, however he isn’t a prison. … Please reserve your judgment till you have got all of the info. These are the acts of an harmless man with nothing to cover, and he seems to be ahead to clearing his identify in court docket.”
Diddy pleaded not responsible to prices earlier than he was denied bail and remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn till his trial. A number of experiences surfaced that Diddy was subsequently positioned on suicide watch.
Diddy’s lawyer, nevertheless, denied the experiences in a press release to Us. In keeping with Agnifilo, it’s customary protocol for “new, high-profile inmates,” however Diddy is “under no circumstances suicidal” and is “robust, wholesome, assured and targeted on his protection.”
Later that month, The New York Instances obtained a brand new court docket letter that laid out Diddy’s alleged plan to explode a automobile. Whereas the letter didn’t determine the focused particular person, the small print aligned with claims laid out by Cassie in her November 2023 lawsuit in opposition to Diddy. She alleged that Diddy had been “indignant” when she began relationship Child Cudi after certainly one of their splits and threatened to firebomb the rapper’s car in retaliation. (Diddy didn’t particularly handle the firebomb allegations on the time however issued a broad assertion denying all of Cassie’s claims.)
“Within the early morning hours of December 22, 2011, the defendant [Diddy] and a co-conspirator kidnapped a person at gunpoint to facilitate breaking into and getting into the residence of one other,” the court docket paperwork learn. “A number of witnesses would testify at trial to the occasions surrounding the kidnapping and break-in, the latter of which is corroborated by police experiences and different data.”
In keeping with the letter, Diddy’s “co-conspirators” allegedly “set fireplace” to the automobile “by slicing open the automobile’s convertible prime and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the inside.”
“Police and fireplace division data extensively doc the arson and conclude that the hearth was deliberately set,” the letter continues.
December 2024
Diddy and Jay-Z had been accused of raping a 13-year-old woman in 2000, as detailed in a civil lawsuit that was initially filed in opposition to Diddy alone in October and refiled so as to add Jay-Z’s identify on December 8.
The accuser, who remained nameless and was solely recognized as “Jane Doe,” claimed the assault occurred at an after social gathering for the MTV Music Video Awards.
Jay-Z mentioned in a press release to Us on December 8 that he denied the allegations lodged in opposition to him. “My lawyer obtained a blackmail try, referred to as a requirement letter, from a ‘lawyer’ named Tony Buzbee. What he had calculated was the character of those allegations and the general public scrutiny would make me wish to settle,” Jay-Z wrote on the time. “No sir, it had the alternative impact! It made me wish to expose you for the fraud you might be in a VERY public trend. So no, I can’t offer you ONE RED PENNY!!”
January 2025
Protection attorneys for Diddy claimed in a January 14 court docket submitting that movies of sexual exercise between Diddy, Cassie and male prostitutes “affirm Mr. Combs’s innocence,” per ABC Information. The attorneys alleged in court docket papers that the clips present sexual exercise amongst “consenting adults.”
There are 9 movies of Combs’ “freak offs” which might be obtainable for protection attorneys to view. They’re allegedly asking judges for electrical copies.
“Opposite to what the federal government has led this Courtroom and the general public to consider, the so-called ‘Freak Offs’ had been personal sexual exercise between totally consenting adults in a long-term relationship,” protection attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos mentioned.
The protection mentioned that the movies between Diddy and Cassie “unambiguously present that the particular person alleged within the indictment to be ‘Sufferer-1’ not solely consented however completely loved herself.”
“At backside, this case is about whether or not Sufferer-I used to be or was not a keen participant in her personal intercourse life with Mr. Combs. The movies affirm that she plainly was,” the protection mentioned.
Should you or somebody you recognize has been sexually assaulted, contact the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). Should you or somebody you recognize are experiencing home violence, please name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential help.
