As multiple women and at least one man investigate Sean “Diddy” Combs in a sex trafficking investigation, the hip-hop mogul is drawing comparisons to Jeffrey Epstein.
Like Mr. Epstein, an investor who had his own private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mr. Combs lured his victims with a lavish lifestyle and, in some cases, for trips to the Virgin Islands and St. Barthelemy. He is accused of assaulting the victim on a rented yacht. .
Some of the most explosive allegations are a lawsuit filed against Combs in February by producer Lil Rod (real name Rodney Jones), alleging a pattern of sexual assault and sex trafficking throughout the mogul’s home. claims to have been recorded by a hidden camera.
Rapper Sean Diddy Combs’ home raided by Homeland Security
Homeland Security officials raided Combs’ home in Los Angeles last week. (Getty Images)
Combs’ residences in Los Angeles and Miami were raided earlier this week in connection with a federal human trafficking investigation, months after similar accusations surfaced in a series of lawsuits.
The complaint also alleges that Mr. Combs had an aide who played a role similar to that of Mr. Epstein’s wife, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now a convicted human trafficker.
Just a few weeks ago, Combs, 54, was on a roll, receiving ceremonial keys to New York City and celebrating the release of his first album in years on the same day.
According to FOX 5 New York, Mayor Eric Adams held out a giant key to Combs in Times Square and said, “The bad boys of entertainment are going to take the keys to the city from the bad boys of politics.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs (left) receives the key to the city from Mayor Eric Adams in Times Square in New York City on September 15, 2023. (Raymond Hall/GC Images)
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“He ran away so many times because of who he was,” said the New York City Police Department’s Rapp Intelligence Unit, which investigated the 1999 nightclub shooting in which Combs and Jennifer Lopez were handcuffed. Former member Derrick Parker says: “A lot of things are coming back to him now.”
From a fatal gang assault early in his career to a nightclub shooting in which his protégé fell, to recent sex-trafficking allegations, Combs, the Bad Boy Records founder, has nearly won every legal battle. Ta.
Law enforcement officers outside Diddy’s mansion in Beverly Hills on March 25. The Department of Homeland Security searched several of the rapper’s properties. (HIGHFIVE/Bauer Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images)
Combs was acquitted of firearms and bribery charges, but although he was not involved in any crimes, he has been mentioned in connection with a hip-hop feud that led to actual violence.
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“The bad boy of entertainment is trying to take the keys to the city from the bad boy of politics.”
But the latest lawsuit sparked a federal investigation that led to raids on his mansions in Los Angeles and Miami last week. Combs and his attorney have denied any wrongdoing.
The hip-hop icon and Bad Boy Records founder made a name for himself in the music industry in the early 1990s, then branched out into clothing design, liquor and other ventures, and became a billionaire. became.
Sean “Diddy” Combs settled with his ex-girlfriend Kathy the day after she filed a lawsuit against him. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
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He came from a poor background. His early rise to fame involved a feud between emerging hip-hop stars on the country’s east and west coasts.
In 1991, Combs promoted a benefit event at the City University of New York, which ended in a fatal crowd altercation that resulted in a stampede of fans, leaving eight people crushed to death.
The front page of the New York Daily News on Sunday, December 29, 1991, reported on the CCNY rap concert promoted by Sean “Puffy” Combs, where eight people were crushed to death. Combs, now known as Diddy, was implicated but later acquitted in a series of legal battles over the decades. (New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
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Combs and his girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were arrested on weapons and bribery charges in 1999 after an argument with another man at Club New York in New York City led to a shootout that left three people injured. .
The couple left, but police found a gun in the car after they ran a red light.
Paul Mauro, a former New York City police officer and current Fox News contributor, happened to be working at the same station the next morning, but was not involved in the investigation.
Puff Daddy and Jennifer Lopez at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. (Kevin Mazur Archive 1/WireImage)
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“Didi wasn’t there, I remember that,” he recalled. “She was completely distraught. I just remember her putting her head down. She was very small, very, very small and kind of looked shocked. I remember that.”
Police detained Lopez for about 14 hours before releasing him without charge. Combs was later indicted but acquitted on charges of using a firearm and bribing a bodyguard.
His friend, rapper Shine, was in prison for assault related to a bar brawl and recorded part of his next album while in prison.
Shine and Diddy on stage at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on November 7, 2023. Both men were charged in connection with the 1999 New York City shooting, but Shine was the only one convicted. (Samir Hussain/Getty Images, Sean Diddy Combs)
Natania Reuben, one of the three people injured in the New York City shooting, told NewsNation on Thursday that it was not Shine’s bullet that struck her, but Combs’ real name, Jamal Barrow. He said it was a bullet.
“I literally saw them pull out a gun,” she told the station. “I had a clear view. I mean, mind you, I got shot in the nose.”
Rapper Sean Diddy Combs’ home raided by Homeland Security
R. Kelly and P. Diddy during a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Both men came to the attention of a Department of Homeland Security investigation after a woman came forward with allegations of sexual abuse. Mr. Kelly will be sentenced in 2022. Mr. Didi was searched at his residence by federal agents earlier this month in an unrelated case, but has not been charged. (Theo Wargo/Wire Image)
Even after establishing himself as a solid leader in the music industry, Combs continued to be accused of violence. Los Angeles police arrested Diddy in 2015 on suspicion of attacking an assistant coach with a kettlebell on the UCLA campus. He claimed self-defense, but the district attorney declined to press charges.
Jones alleges in the lawsuit that Combs continued to exhibit violent tendencies in 2022 and 2023.
Last year, his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra “Kathy” Ventura, filed an explosive federal lawsuit alleging rape, forced prostitution and physical abuse. They settled the lawsuit the next day, without Mr. Combs admitting any wrongdoing.
But further allegations of decades of abuse emerged.
Joy Dickerson-Neal filed a separate lawsuit alleging that Diddy was drugged, raped and abused on tape in 1991, when she was a student at Syracuse University.
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Another woman, Lisa Gardner, also filed a lawsuit, alleging that Combs forced her to have sex with him at a party and that his friend also raped her. A few days later, Combs allegedly punched her, according to her civil complaint.
He is also named in a third lawsuit filed by Jane Doe, who was a minor at the time of the alleged sexual assault. In 2017, her ex-girlfriend’s personal chef accused him of making her do his work during a sex party. They settled the case two years later.
Yung Miami and Diddy perform on stage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards held at the Prudential Center on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. (Christopher Polk/Variety, via Getty Images)
The filing of Mr. Jones’ lawsuit is so alarming that his lawyer included a “trigger warning” at the beginning of the civil complaint.
Jones said he had “hundreds of hours of video and audio footage of Combs, his staff, and guests engaging in grossly illegal activities” at his residences in multiple states and on his yacht, which was bound for the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Barthelemy. He claims to have a record. .
Rodney Jones’ lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs begins with a “trigger warning.” (Southern District of New York)
Jones’ lawyer describes him as a musical genius who lived with Combs for a year and produced nine songs for Diddy’s new album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” , this album was released on the same day they received the keys to the city.
During that time, they allege they witnessed Combs “providing lace-laced alcoholic beverages to minors” and engaging in prostitution and other crimes.
The complaint also alleges that two unnamed people, one a rapper and the other an R&B singer, “interacted with underage girls” on Combs’ yacht and Los Angeles mansion. Jones also claims that he was assaulted by actor Cuba Gooding Jr. in a studio on his yacht.
Last year, Cuba Gooding Jr. entered into a plea deal in the sexual abuse case, allowing him to have a clean criminal record. (Johnny Nunez)
Gooding did not immediately respond to a request for a response to the allegations.
“It’s like Epstein,” Parker told FOX News Digital. “It’s close to that…and the reason is that these videotapes are going to be very interesting.”
An expert on the intersection of crime and the hip-hop industry. wrote a book Parker said HSI investigators will comb through footage seized in the raid to determine whether a crime took place and whether other celebrities were present. .
The more lawsuits there are, the more whistleblowers will come forward, Parker said.
In his lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, Rodney Jones claims that this photo shows him with Cuba Gooding Jr. on a yacht that Combs rented, and that Sean “Diddy” Combs claims that he made unwanted advances to her. (Southern District of New York)
And evidence in the lawsuit, even if settled, is likely to impact an ongoing federal investigation, Mauro said.
“It’s very penetrating,” he said. ”[Federal prosecutors] I’m going to summon all of these. ”
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Diddy has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement pasted to his own X profile, the tycoon said his accusers were trying to “assassinate” his person.
“Nasty allegations have been made against me by people looking for a quick paycheck,” he wrote. “Let me be clear: I have not done anything as bad as is being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family, and my truth.”
FOX News’ Elizabeth Stanton, Lauryn Oberharts and Tracy Wright contributed to this report.
