Sean (Diddy) Combs faces criminal indictment in New York, prosecutors say

WARNING: This story contains details of intimate partner violence.

Sean (Diddy) Combs was arrested late Monday in New York, where he faces a sealed criminal indictment, prosecutors announced late Monday.

Details of the charges weren’t immediately announced by prosecutors, but the hip-hop mogul has, in recent months, faced a stream of allegations by women who have accused him of sexual assault.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Damian Williams, said in a statement that federal agents arrested Combs. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”

Combs’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued a statement saying: “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

He added that Combs had gone to New York last week in anticipation of the charges being brought.

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.

Combs was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby and is in federal custody, said a person familiar with the arrest who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Criminal charges would be a major but not unexpected takedown of one of the most prominent producers and most famous names in the history of hip-hop.

The federal investigation of Combs was revealed when — in connection with a sex trafficking investigation — Homeland Security Investigations agents served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’s mansions in Los Angeles and Miami in March .

Another of his lawyers, Aaron Dyer, said the raids were “a gross use of military-level force,” that the allegations were “meritless,” and said Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.

Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, was at the centre of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s as the partner and producer of rapper Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997.

But like many of those who survived the era, his public image had softened with age into a genteel host of parties in Hollywood and the Hamptons, a fashion-forward businessman, and a doting father who spoiled his kids, some of whom lost their mother in 2018.

A different image emerges

But a different image began to emerge late last year, when his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, became the first of several people to sue him for sexual abuse, with stories of a steady stream of sex workers in drug-fuelled settings where some of those involved were coerced or cajoled into sex.

In her November lawsuit, Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, alleged years of abuse, including beatings and rape. Her suit also alleged Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “requiring her to engage in forced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and by engaging in “harbouring and transportation of Plaintiff for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”

It also said he compelled Cassie to help him traffic male sex workers Combs would force her to have sex with while he filmed.

The suit was settled the following day, but its reverberations would last far longer.

Combs lost lingering allies, supporters and those reserving judgment when CNN in May aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

The following day, in his first real acknowledgement of wrongdoing since the stream of allegations began, Combs posted a social media video apologizing, saying “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.”

Cassie’s lawsuit was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the ensuing months.

Other women file suits

Cassie’s lawsuit was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the ensuing months.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.

Another of Combs’s accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Another woman who filed a lawsuit, April Lampros, said she was a college student in 1994 when she met Combs. She alleged that’s when a series of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Combs and those around him began and said they lasted for years.

Combs and his attorneys denied nearly all of the allegations in the lawsuits.

While authorities did not publicly say that the lawsuits set off the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the warrants were served that the case was based on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Cassie and Lampros did.

Support is available for anyone who has been abused or assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. The Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Signal For Help is a silent, one-handed gesture to use in a video call to indicate that you are at risk of violence at home. ​​If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.