Law&Crime Sidebar - 21 Most Shocking P. Diddy Accusations Amid Sex Trafficking Investigation

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

It’s been one year since the R&B singer and one-time girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs filed an explosive lawsuit against him and 9 months since investigators unexpectedly raided two of his mansions. Since then, we’ve heard some truly shocking allegations against the disgraced music mogul. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down some of the wildest claims.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. It has been one year since an R&B singer and the one-time girlfriend of Sean Diddy Combs filed an explosive lawsuit against him and nine months since investigators unexpectedly raided two of his mansions. During this time, we have heard some truly shocking allegations against the disgraced music mogul. We're going to break down some of the biggest accusations to come to light since Diddy's fall from grace began last November. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. It's been said that the higher someone

rises, the harder they fall. And that seems to certainly apply to Sean. on Diddy Combs as he sits in a jail cell trying to fight back against heinous accusations because more than a dozen alleged victims as well as the federal government accused Combs of engaging in essentially a campaign of sexual assault, violence, exploitation, running a criminal enterprise to fulfill his fantasies. He's accused of everything from arson, drug smuggling, domestic violence, forced labor, kidnapping, assault of children. Now, to be clear, he's not been found liable in any of the lawsuits that he faces. He hasn't been found guilty of any crime. He is innocent until proven guilty. But let's

talk about the accusations, because as we detail some of the most shocking allegations against Diddy, I have to give a caveat here. We obviously won't be able to get into every single wild rumor or allegation or claim that's out there. Can't make this episode four hours long, But we've covered almost every aspect of this saga extensively here on Sidebar. And you can check out our full category of episodes. We've covered everything. So you can check it out on our Long Crimes YouTube channel. But I want to dive into right now several key accusations over the past year.

And of course, by way of background, who we're talking about. We're talking about Sean Combs, who got his start in New York in the 1990s when he established Bad Boy Records, which is now Bad Boy Entertainment. Combs skyrocketed to fame alongside Biggie Smalls, before Small's untimely death in 1997. Since then, the music mogul has branched out, dipping his toe into the fashion world, starting television company, becoming a philanthropist. He's continued to put out albums while also doing brand deals, becoming a fixture in pop culture. Hey, by the way, really appreciate you guys coming to us for our Sean Diddy Combs coverage. And look, one of the reasons we're able to do this is because we have great sponsors who support us.

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The first chink in Combs' celebrity armor came around this time last year, November 2023. That is when singer Cassandra Ventura, known to many as Cassie, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Combs, and that is where our story begins. This bombshell lawsuit started off with a trigger warning at the top of its complaint, big red letters, and obviously for good reasons because the document goes into horrific detail about confrontations or alleged confrontations between Ventura and Combs that are very disturbing. According to Ventura's complaint, this violence started essentially as soon as their relationship did. She says Combs was prone to uncontrollable rage. She claimed that she was the victim of multiple savage beatings. The lawsuit states,

quote, Mr. Combs often punched, beat, kicked, and stomped on Ms. Ventura, resulting in bruises, burst lips, black eyes, and bleeding. And this lawsuit is where we first hear the term freak-offs or F-O's. Ventura had alleged that Combs would hire male sex workers or force her to hire them and then coerce her into having sex with them while he's just watching, pleasuring himself, directing the acts. She says that she would be supplied with drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana. And she said sometimes the freakoffs lasted for so long that she would need IV fluids to recover.

These freakoffs would happen, she says, almost weekly. And she alleges that Combs forced her to watch at least one videotape session that he recorded. Now, at the time this lawsuit was filed, Combs' attorney Ben Brathman said that it was riddled with lies. In a statement, Braffman said for the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura's persistent demand of $30 million under the threat of writing a damaging book about the relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs' reputation and seeking a payday. But then, just one day later, it was announced that Combs and his legal team had settled this lawsuit. with Cassandra Ventura. And Ventura had released a statement of her own saying, I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control.

I want to thank my family, fans, and lawyers for their unwavering support. And Braffman released a follow-up statement at the time saying, just so we're clear, a decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing. Mr. Combs' decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms. Ventura the best. But it was this lawsuit, and you could also argue maybe the settlement of it, that just kicked off things in a major way. Because soon after, many of Ventura's claims would seem to be corroborated by other accounts, other claims and lawsuits, as well as tangible evidence. You know, according to Ventura, these freak-offs often took place in hotels, which is where she was in 2016 when surveillance.

video showed Combs viciously beating her in a hotel hallway. CNN published this bombshell video several months after that lawsuit was filed. And since then, Combs' attorneys have pointed the finger at federal investigators as having potentially leaked that video. But prosecutors said, the government, we didn't have this. This wasn't in our possession until it came out in the media. The footage from the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles shows Ventura carrying a bag toward a bay of elevators, and that's when Combs comes down the hallway, wearing just a robe,

throws her to the ground, kicks her repeatedly, drags her by the shirt, at one point he even appears to throw a vase in her direction. The backlash from that was swift from that video, and it appears Combs may have tried to do some damage control because he puts out an apology video on Instagram two days later, which by the way was later deleted. It's so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you gotta do that. I was f***ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses.

My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. And to be clear, prosecutors indicated that Ventura, in that video, she was fleeing. she was fleeing from a freak off. But Combs' defense attorneys have said, that's not true. This was just a domestic dispute. That's how they framed it.

Okay, so not long after Ventura filed her civil lawsuit, a few more women came forward with their own allegations. And then a music producer who'd work with Sean Combs on his latest album, the Love album, filed a lawsuit of his own. The complaint starts off by explaining that Rodney Jones, also known as Lilrod, produced nine songs for Sean Combs on his love album and actually live with Combs for a period of time, and how, quote, throughout his time with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones

witnessed, experienced, and endured many things that went far beyond his role as a producer on the love album. Mr. Combs required Mr. Jones to record him constantly. On several occasions, Mr. Combs took Mr. Jones cell phone and began recording himself. As a result, Mr. Jones has secured hundreds of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff, and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity. So it makes you wonder, could federal prosecutors have gotten their hands on some of those videos as part of their investigation? And what exactly are the allegations asserted by Mr. Jones? Well, Jones makes stunning allegations about Combs' inappropriate sexual behavior, as alleged, inappropriate sexual behavior. Jones claims that Combs repeatedly

and intentionally groped his private parts without his consent. He says this happened many times in many places like L.A., New York, Miami, the Virgin Islands. He even says that Combs forced him to be in his presence multiple times when Combs was just naked. And Jones has sued Sean Combs and others, by the way, companies and other people that he believes is part of this criminal enterprise. But he sued Sean Combs for sexual harassment, assault, and says that he has suffered. severe emotional distress and anxiety since his time with Combs. He also claims that he wasn't properly paid for his time working on the Love album,

and he asserts that there is a racketeering enterprise, a criminal enterprise afoot. But Jones doesn't stop there. He also claims that Sean Combs was grooming him to pass him off to his celebrity friends for sex. Yeah. The lawsuit talks about an incident on Combs' yacht when Combs left him alone in a makeshift studio with none other than actor Cuba Gooding Jr. So Cuba Gooding Jr., according to Jones, allegedly touched, groped, and fondled him while Jones reportedly tried to push him away.

And in fact, there are photos included in this complaint that shows not only Combs and Gooding Jr. together on that yacht, but also Gooding Jr. and Jones together. And by the way, he's not only suing Cuba Gooding Jr., he's also suing Sean Combs for that because he says, look, this happened on your property. this happened on your yacht. I was sexually assaulted and harassed on your yacht, Sean Combs. Another of Combs' attorney, Sean Holly, released a statement that called Jones a liar and said he is, quote, shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday. And it's our understanding this lawsuit is still making its way through the court process. But also named in Jones lawsuit was Combs's oldest biological son, Justin Combs. This was a shocking allegation, too, because Jones says

that Diddy was hosting a writer and producers camp at a studio out in L.A. It's called Chalice Studios. And he claims that Jones was there, along with Diddy, Justin, and Justin's friend only referred to in the lawsuit as G. And according to Jones, apparently G, Justin, and Diddy get into some sort of heated argument and they move from the studio to a restroom. And the complaint reads, Mr. Jones was approximately two feet away from the bathroom when gunshots rang out. Mr. Jones recalls hearing multiple gunshots. Mr. Jones immediately went into a state of shock and feared that he would be shot next.

Mr. Jones genuinely believed that he would be shot through the door due to how close he was. After the shooting ended, a crowd gathered around the restroom. Upon information and belief when the door finally opened, Mr. Combs and Jay Combs exited. G was lying on the restroom floor in a fetal position, holding his stomach and bleeding out of his torso and leg hip area. everyone stood around looking upon G. Frustrated by the lack of aid to G, Mr. Jones dropped everything, ran to G and immediately began placing pressure on G's gunshot wound to his torso.

According to Jones, Mr. Combs gave strict instructions to inform the police they had nothing to do with the shooting. He also forced Mr. Jones to lie to the police by telling them that G was shot standing outside the studio by a drive-by assailant. He also says that Mr. Jones has several corroborating witnesses who feared retaliation. for Mr. Combs, and they have agreed to speak publicly when subpoenaed. And as I mentioned, he named Justin Cobes as a defendant in that case. But talking about Combs' sons, let's also talk about Christian Combs. This is Diddy's son with late model Kim Porter. He is named in a lawsuit of his own.

This one filed by a woman named Grace O'Markey. She claimed that she was working as a steward back in December of 2022 when Combs rented a boat or a yacht for the holiday. She was working there. And O'Markey alleges that one night Christian came. aboard, kissed her neck, her face, groped her legs, breasts, private areas. O'Markey says that she tried to go back to work, but Christian followed her, wanted her to find him a place to sleep for the night, so she takes him to the cinema room on the vessel,

and that is when she claims that Christian stopped her from leaving, groped her again, took off all of his clothes, and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. Her lawsuit accuses Christian of assault, battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and she sued Sean Combs because she says this happened. Again, premises liability on his property. Now, in March of this year, there was a big development. The world was stunned by surprise raids at Combs' mansions on opposite sides of the country. Investigators were the Department of Homeland Security. They showed up at the homes in Los Angeles and Miami bringing out boxes and boxes of evidence. At the time, word was that the Southern District of New York was

looking into possible sex trafficking. And Combs himself, he wasn't there. At the time of the raids, but Christian and Justin were. They were detained in front of the Hollywood Hills Mansion, while investigators made sure the scene was secure, they were placed in handcuffs. And rumors were running, running rampant, that Combs had taken his private jet and fled the country. But he was spotted in Miami, and after the raids, everyone was kind of on pins and needles waiting for the other shoe to drop. Would he be charged?

Would charges happen? Were they expected? When would they happen? Well, we had to wait a few more months, but charges were officially full. filed against Sean Combs in September. His lawyers say they expected an indictment to be coming down. Some Combs had flown to New York in anticipation of his arrest. Now, he reportedly had planned to turn himself in, but officers kind of beat him to the punch. They ended up arresting him at the Park Hyatt, New York in Manhattan a day early. Damien Williams, United States Attorney

for the Southern District of New York, announced the charges against Combs on September 17th. This office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking, no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be. No one should doubt our commitment on that. Now, Combs faces three big charges here, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by forced fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. And for now, he is the only person named as a defendant in the indictment. Combs entered a not guilty plea to every charge.

convicted of all the charges, he faces a minimum of 15 years in prison could spend the rest of his life in prison. It's currently locked up in the Metropolitan Detention Center out in Brooklyn as he tries to raise the issue of bail once again after previously being denied, pre-trial release multiple times. We'll see which way that shakes out. But I want to discuss, again, one of the biggest allegations and probably the most central allegation against Sean Combs, the freakoffs. So while no victims are named specifically in the grand jury indictment, there are obvious parallels between the accusations that it contains and the claims made by Cassandra Ventura. I mean, the fact that the indictment says, freak-offs is something.

In fact, Damien Williams even went into detail about what Combs expected his employees to do before, during, and after these freak-offs. Now, Combs did not do this all on his own. As I mentioned, Combs has been charged with RICO conspiracy. He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way. Those individuals allegedly included high-ranking supervisors in the business, personal assistance, security staff, and household staff. The indictment alleges that those individuals facilitated the freak-offs. They booked the hotel rooms and stocked them with the supplies.

including drugs, baby oil, personal lubricant, extra linens, and lighting. When the hotel rooms got damaged, they helped clean it up. They arranged for victims and commercial sex workers to travel for the freakoffs, and they delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers. I'll tell you, the indictment even says that during the searches of Combs' mansions, the ones I mentioned before, investigators found more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant. Now, as Combs deals with legal attacks in criminal court, as we know, he is also facing more than a dozen lawsuits in civil court.

And while there have been lawsuits that have trickled in over the last few months from several people accusing Sean Combs of misconduct all the way back to the 90s, it was Tony Busby who changed the whole game, this Texas attorney, because he announced that his firm and partnering with other firms would be filing more than a hundred individual lawsuits against Sean Combs. The wall of silence has now been broken, and victims are coming forward. Yeah, according to Buzzbee, Combs' alleged victim pool was vast, covered different ages, genders, races, locations.

And I have to be clear about something, despite the fact that there were prior comments from alleged victims where they made inferences to seeing Combs with underage girls at parties, this was the first time that Combs was explicitly and directly accused of sexually assaulting children. And the allegations are shocking. One of the first lawsuits that Tony Busby filed, and he's filed more than a dozen of the promised 120 so far, is from a man who says he was just 16 years old when Combs assaulted him at one of his infamous white parties in the Hamptons. And in fact, there's a photo in the lawsuit that shows John Doe, or seemingly Finally, John Doe, whose faces blurred standing next to a smiling Sean Combs, so that at least

would seem to suggest they were at this party together, or that's at least the allegation. According to the lawsuit, Combs took an interest in John Doe and wanted to talk to him. They walked to a more private area near the portable restrooms brought in for the party. There, John Doe told Combs, he was a big fan of Combs and shared his dreams of becoming a star. Combs smiled, telling him he had potential and the look. When John Doe admitted his voice was not great, Combs assured him that did not matter. Combs made clear that the only thing that mattered was having the right look for the industry, and with it, Combs could transform Doe or anybody into a star.

And from there, John Doe claims that Combs fondled him for several minutes and then walked away like nothing happened. In another civil complaint, a woman identified only as Jane Doe said that she was 13, when she was dropped off at Radio City Music Hall to try to get into the VMAs, the Video Music Awards back in 2000. She says she didn't have a ticket, so she kind of wandered around outside, trying to find a way in. And she says a limo driver invited her to come back later, and he would take her to an after party, reportedly telling her that Sean Combs, quote, liked younger girls. Well, according to Jane Doe, when she got to the party,

she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and then she was given a drink, which she believes was drugged. So she finds her way to a bedroom where she could lie down to hopefully feel better. This is what she says. And that is when she claims Combs came in, comes into the room with people identified only as Celebrity A, a male, and Celebrity B, a female. And Jane Doe says that Celebrity A raped her while the other two watched. And then she says, Combs raped her. She was eventually able to get away, says that she wandered around the house naked while this party was still going on,

before eventually making it to a gas station where she could call for help. And one last lawsuit that I want to highlight for you, because it involves, of all things, a 10-year-old boy. According to his lawsuit, this John Doe, who's now an adult, says that he had an interest in becoming a singer or rapper when he was young. So his parents worked with a consultant who got the meeting with Sean Combs. They flew to New York where John Doe met with Combs for an audition without his parents there, and after he performed a few songs or a few rap songs for Sean Combs, the music mogul allegedly asked the boy how badly he wanted to be a star. And John Doe says that he told him he would do anything.

He says he was given a soda by someone else in the room that he now believes was drugged, and he claims Combs pushed him down and raped him. 10-year-old boy. Afterward, Combs allegedly told the boy that if he told anyone what happened, he would hurt his mom and dad. John Doe says that he did end up telling his parents, but because of Combs' prestige, his power, his wealth, they didn't report it to the police. Now, in response to these extreme examples in these lawsuits, a representative for Sean Combs had this to say. The lawyer behind this lawsuit is interested in media attention rather than the truth. as is obvious from his constant press appearances and 1-800 number.

As we've said before, Mr. Combs cannot respond to every new publicity stunt, even in response to claims that are facially ridiculous or demonstratively false. Now, here's something else I should tell you. Each of the lawsuits filed by Tony Busby lists the cause of action behind the complaints as violation of New York City victims of gender-motivated Violence Protection Act. And we've talked about this before. The allegations are that these violent sexual sexual, episodes were all done because they were based on an animus on someone's gender, them being a

female, them being a male. And what's interesting about this law is there was a look back window where someone can sue for these type of claims that would otherwise be time barred because of a statute of limitations issue, but they can file them. And their window to file these lawsuits has been extended to February 2025. That's why you're seeing a lot of these lawsuits right now. And this act also allows plaintiffs to recover not only damages, but also attorney's fees and costs. So you can see why that's an attractive option. Now, as we sit here and we talk about everything that's led up to this moment, what is happening right now? It could be that we're about to hear new charges against Sean Combs. We learned that a grand jury met to hear testimony from a man

who claims that he has sex tapes of assaults involving Sean Combs. And this allegedly involves eight different celebrities as well as minors. Grand jury proceedings, they're secret, so we don't know exactly what is being said or not. But what we do know is that Courtney Burgess has identified himself as that witness. And alongside his attorney, Ariel Mitchell Kidd, they did a press conference outside of the federal courthouse. They also appeared on News Nation to talk about the alleged tapes. Combs lawyers say that interviews and announcements like this are interfering with Combs' ability to get a fair trial. They are begging for Judge Arun's subramarian to put a stricter gag order in place where witnesses, potential witnesses, cannot speak about the case. No ruling on

that yet. But if the grand jury does decide on a superseding indictment with new or upgraded or amended charges, I got to tell you, Combs scheduled trial date of May 2025, by all accounts, I think that's going to be pushed back. So this was a lot of ground to cover, and it's kind of only a sliver of what we've learned over the last several months about Sean Diddy Combs. I didn't even mention the allegation that he allegedly blew up Kid Cuddy's car. That's a whole separate incident. But we, of course, will continue to follow this legal saga and every step of the way. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.