Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy's Homes Raided by FBI — Everything We Know

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, appears to be under investigation by the federal government, as authorities in New York work a large trafficking case. Combs has been sued multiple times since November 2023, with several alleged victims making claims of sexual abuse and human trafficking against the music mogul. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the latest developments with former CIA and FBI special agent Tracy Walder.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest 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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that 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. Sean Combs, the music mogul recently inundated with a wave of sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations and lawsuits, is now the focus of federal law enforcement After it comes out, multiple properties associated with the rapper have been raided by federal agents. Former FBI and CIA agent Tracy Walder breaks down what these raids could mean for the rapper and music executive. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

He is a man of many names. Huffy, P. Diddy, Diddy. His legal name, Sean Combs. You know who I'm talking about. The rapper, producer, entertainment. Khan reported billionaire. He has been in the spotlight a lot over the last few months, and I will tell you not in a good way. And now he is in the news in a shocking development. Federal agents have raided homes, properties associated with the rapper in Miami and Los Angeles. This is reportedly

pursuant to search warrants from the Southern District of New York, a Homeland Security Investigation spokesperson told ABC News on Monday, quote, earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations, New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, that's Homeland Security, HSI, Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. According to NBC News, a source indicated that federal authorities have interviewed three women and one man in New York in connection to allegations of human trafficking, sexual assault, and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms, and

that interviews with other individuals are also planned. Now, to be very clear, we don't know whether Combs is the target of this trafficking investigation, what his connection is in any way. And we also can't confirm to you at the time of this recording if Diddy has been detained or arrested, if he's even in the country. There are videos that have circulated online about him being at the Miami airport while this was going on. Reporting also indicates his jet may have left the country. Some reporting indicating the jet is possibly in the Caribbean. We just don't know. And I will tell you, at the time of this recording, no criminal charges.

have been filed in connection with this investigation as far as we know. What we do know, or what I should say, our sidebar viewers and listeners will know, is that this development may not be that much of a surprise. Why do I say that? Because we dedicated several shows to the recent lawsuits against Diddy, his family, associates, companies for allegations of sex trafficking, sexual abuse, harassment, allegations of firearm possession, a shooting, drugs. Now, to be clear, while we.

talk about these lawsuits today, we do not know if they are in any way connected to this investigation, but we do clearly have a lot to get into. So with that, without a further ado, let me bring in right now, Tracy Walder, former CIA and FBI agent, National Security contributor for News Nation, author of The Unexpected Spy, was with me last night as I was hosting Dan Abrams Live talking about this. Tracy, good morning. Good to see you again. Good morning, Jesse. Thank you for having me. All right, your overall thoughts on this raid. development this is? You know, it's, it is quite a development, but, you know, just like you mentioned before, I'm not necessarily surprised that it happened because there has been so much in regards to

civil cases. Now, I realize that civil, those civil cases are going to have no bearing on this rates that occurred. I understand that. But at the same time, in my opinion, where there's smoke, there's fire, and a lot of these civil cases probably have criminal merit at some point. And so I, I am not necessarily surprised that this happened, but what will surprise me, and I think might surprise some people, is the sheer volume and connection of any kind of sex trafficking ring that he allegedly may have been running. I think that is what is going to come probably as the most surprising to folks, how in-depth something like this was, how long something like this may have gone on for, and how many

people were involved. Typically, HSI really looks at sex. trafficking in regards to minors. And so that's another layer to this as well that I think is probably the surprising component. And I mean, last night, a lot of people were making comparisons. Oh, he's the Jeffrey Epstein of the hip-hop world. Now, again, he hasn't been charged. And even if he is charged, you'll be innocent until proven guilty. Having said that, I'm reading through these lawsuits. And I remember one of his associates was compared to being the Galane Maxwell of this situation. So there are these kinds of connections that people are making. We'll get into it a little

bit more. But going back to the raid, why do you think it happened when it happened, right? It's not just because it was a sunny day in Los Angeles and Miami. The timing of this, I have to feel, is very strategic. Look, you're absolutely right. Yes, it was actually a beautiful day on both coast, quite frankly, to conduct this raid. I've participated in several raids during my time with the FBI, and that's actually not uncommon, particularly in federal type of crimes, which is what we're looking at here. Crimes that are going to cross state borders, you, the key, in something like this and a non-violent crime is to the preservation of evidence. That's what is so important here.

And that is why I believe this was done at exactly the same time. It's actually not unusual. It's something that is done. And sometimes it's less about capturing the person and more about ensuring that evidence is still there. Evidence has not been destroyed. And we can get as much as possible. Would that mean they had some sort of knowledge or some sort of belief that evidence was about to be destroyed at that moment? You know, and I struggle to make this comparison, so hopefully people won't

be frustrated, but this is actually similar what we saw with former President Trump at Mara Lago in that they had some indication that evidence was in the process of perhaps being destroyed or was potentially going to be destroyed. And so what I think is in this case, they may have an had an indication, excuse me, that evidence was being moved, was being destroyed, participants were moving around and trying to, you know, squirle away evidence. And so, yes, sometimes you have to act under a sense of urgency. I don't know in terms of a criminal case, you know, what's being built against Diddy, as you mentioned, he is currently at the taping of this show, not under any criminal

charges. But it's probably correct to assume that evidence was perhaps going to be destroyed imminently. And I know there was reporting to indicate that certain, um, items were removed from the house. That's what was observed yesterday or removed from the properties. I am reminded of something from one of the lawsuits, one of the recent lawsuits that we covered here on Saibar. It was filed by a producer of Diddy's former producer, Little Rod Jones. This was for sexual assault, harassment, really disturbing allegations. But Jones, the ledge that Combs has hidden cameras in every room of his homes and these secret recordings

of celebrities and associates that he says has, quote, compromising footage of every person that has attended his party. So the first thing that I thought of yesterday, what could they be looking for potentially if this is a sex trafficking investigation is whether there's videotapes and the camera system, right? Right. And so I think, and I was going to mention this digital evidence is key. Obviously, at this point of time, it's really easy to destroy digital evidence. It's not something that's difficult to do, which is why they went in there and went in there simultaneously. You know, again, you made the comparison to Epstein. I think, you know, Epstein, he was also recording and also had secret cameras, really throughout all of his homes, private planes, all of that. And, you know,

his client list was more about politicians. Here, I think what we're going to see are clients involved in the entertainment business or pop culture, if you will. And so I do think right now this is going to be huge web that they're going to have to untangle. And I'm expecting it's going to take quite some time to go through all of that digital evidence because I fully expect that he had cameras and other locations as well. It's my understanding that those aren't just his two sole places of residence and where he spends time. So I suspect there will be more digital evidence.

And by the way, before we get into the substance of any of these lawsuits, if Diddy left the country, right? If the reporting is indicated that he fled or left, that would signify to me he was tipped off, right? I mean, anytime you have somebody, and again, we don't know if he was detained, We don't know if he was arrested. I would think not. Wouldn't that information have come out?

Because a part of me thought that he might have been detained, put in one of those transport vehicles, maybe brought him. We just didn't know about it. I imagine we might know about it today. Maybe not. I'll ask you. But also, if he had left the country, that means someone tipped him off. And I think that would be of a concern, right? Oh, of course, that would be of concern.

I was looking at the flight log of, I believe he has a Gulf Stream. It looks to me like that plane landed in Antigua at about nine. am so actually that would have been before this raid occurred right so then you would have a difficult time saying you know he was leaving because of the rate we don't know if he's on it we don't know if he's on that plane or what the deal is you don't know who the passengers are on the plane you just know that it's traveling somewhere will a lot people have private planes and they use them for things other than when they are on them right and so we also know too that he was at the miami airport there was footage of him kind of seen pacing on the phone i believe that they had a

specific warrant for him but again this is just me speculating I believe if they had a specific warrant for him, they would have probably arrested him at that point in time. I'm not saying that an arrest isn't going to be forthcoming, but I truly believe, and I said this last night when I was speaking with you, that the execution of these warrants was really about the preservation of evidence and less about arresting him. I suspect that may come at a later time. Hey, we're going to get back to this Diddy discussion in a minute, crazy development. But I have to highlight one of our incredible partners here on Sidebar. I love talking about them. Morgan and Morgan, the sponsor of this video, America's largest injury law firm.

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but she claimed that he beat her, forced her to have sex with prostitutes on video while he watched and masturbated, but also forced her to carry a gun for him. She also alleged that Combs blew up rapper Kid Cuddy's car because he found out that Cuddy was romantically interested in Ventura. Then in one of the latest lawsuits that I mentioned from Little Rod Jones, Jones brings up this event, a shooting that happened at Chalice Record Studios out in Los Angeles, where apparently he says there was a heated fight between Combs. His son, Justin, who was actually handcuffed yesterday, or the reporting indicates he was handcuffed. And Justin's friend identified as G. gunshots rang out, G was lying on the ground with blood coming out of his leg and hip area. Combs allegedly told his team to tell police that he had nothing to do with the shooting.

And then Jones, in the lawsuit, provided screenshots of the bloodstained bathroom where he claims G was shot by either Combs or his son and claims he still has the clothing for evidence. Now, again, I say all that to believe if they think that they're entering into a violent environment, right? Let me go back a little bit. They absolutely would have every reason to believe that they're going into a violent environment. environment. And, you know, really, Diddy's history with violence and firearms goes back pretty far, even into the time when he was dating Jennifer Lopez. There were, you know, that had occurred as well. I believe it was at a nightclub. There was a shooting there as well that he was involved in, although it could be incorrect. No, no, no. And by the way, in one of the latest lawsuits,

that is brought up. And basically the allegation was that Diddy was involved in that shooting, but had someone cover for him. Cover for him. And that's how I had recalled that as well. And so So they had every reason to believe at the FBI. And again, FBI is not HSI, but they operate the same in terms of how they are executing warrants and things of that nature. If you believe you're going into a hostile environment, you are going to bring your special teams with you, whether that's a SWAT team, those kinds of things, they are going to come with you. And so the fact that his sons were hand kept, and I know there was a lot of discussion about that, about how it wasn't fair. That's actually very proper procedure. And that's to ensure the safety of everyone. His sons are adults. They are known to have weapons. They may not have been arrested,

but handcuffing them until you are sure that the home is secure, and all weapons are secure, is actually a very valid and very normal thing to do. Additionally, so you have that with the history of violence and weapons, there's no question. But then you also have teams that have to go in there and process

all of that digital evidence that we just talked about. So you have these massive SWAT and tactical teams going into disarm, and then you also have also have agents going in there to collect evidence. So that is why this is such a large group of people. Also, you know, Jesse, I'm from L.A. This area in Homeby Hills where one of his homes were is massive. So you need a lot of agents to cover the entirety of that area.

So it's actually not surprising. And we actually don't know, I mean, I saw reporting that it might actually be associated with Bad Boy Films production like that might be the home. So again, maybe it's, I don't know if it's personal residence. or it's one of his company's properties. I agree. That's what I had saw as well, is maybe the registered owner is that. That's difficult, right?

Because the reality is, is he owns that production company. Sure, yes, of course, yeah. You know, and so the reality is, is that it's still associated with him as he is the owner of that company. So, look, it may not be his primary residence. I have no idea, obviously, but at the same time, it is a company that is known and documented to be associated with him and his sons were there and let's talk about the sons Justin and King Combs so we saw this video what appeared to be them in handcuffs I said it yesterday on when I was seeing this and I you said it too not necessarily they are arrested in charge

with a crime but they could be just detained while the search is happening now I say that but again the first thing that I thought was the little Rod Jones lawsuit and one of the things he talks about how it was how in he alleges that this past summer, July 2nd, 2023, out in California, claims that Combs had a party with underage girls and sex workers at his home, and his son and an unidentified R&B artists were there. Quote, he is a Grammy award-winning R&B singer who had trouble with law enforcement after assaulting a Bahan billionaire. Now, again, embedded in that lawsuit are screenshots of a video taken of this party where it

allegedly shows Combs either kissing or dancing almost face-to-face with a purported underage girl. So many times in this latest lawsuit, his son is implicated in this alleged wrongdoing. I believe, just like I do believe that charges for Diddy are forthcoming. I believe that charges for his sons most likely are as well. Now, given the raid and when it occurred if they were in illegal possession of firearms based on California gun laws, then they could have probably taken them into custody right then and there for obvious reasons. I don't think that that's what they're going to do. I suspect that they were simply detained for the duration of the search, and then they were let go.

But again, I'm simply hypothesizing here, but I do think at this point, if his sons had been arrested and formally booked, we would know probably at this point based on public access to those documents, and we don't know. that information. And so I just assume that for the safety of everyone there, they were physically detained during the duration of the search, which again is very normal procedure in something like this. There have obviously been a lot of reaction and a lot of response to that, including in the celebrity route. I mean, 50 cent posted on Instagram about the raids. Now it's not did he do it. It's diddy done. They don't come like that unless they got a case. Speaking of that,

So if we think about the possibility of a sex trafficking investigation, sex trafficking-related charges, if we go to December 2023, there was a woman who accused Combs and former bad boy entertainment president Harvey Pierre and another person of sex trafficking and gang raping her when she was 17 years old. There was a Jane Doe who says that she was flown from Michigan to New York City, supplied with drugs and alcohol, and then assaulted by all three men at Combs's recording studios. Now, Combs, by the way, has always denied the allegations, and in fact, in response to one lawsuit, I had posted, I believe it was on Instagram, enough is enough. The last couple of weeks, I've sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick heyday. Let me be absolutely clear. I did not do, and he goes on to say, did not do this. Now, again, that was in relation to a lot of these lawsuits being filed.

But when we're talking about sex trafficking, Tracy, and we're talking about the Southern District of New York, possibly in New York, initiating this search warrant, where does your mind go in terms of what we might be looking at in terms of hot potential charges, potential allegations, and how it's connected to New York? So I absolutely believe, and again, simply my hypothesis, he is innocent until proven guilty that he will be arrested or indicted on sex trafficking charges. because I have no doubt about that. And I do believe that he was most likely the kingpin of this. These girls, what that tells me, if it's out of the Southern District of New York, is this is spanning multiple states and that he is trafficking or allegedly trafficking girls across multiple states, across the United States.

This isn't just an isolated incident in one location. And so I have heard things as well about his Hampton's parties and things happening in those Hampton's parties as well. So I suspect more evidence may come out as a result of that. But these are extremely serious charges. And part of me, too, is frustrated by somewhat the complacency, right, of the entertainment industry as a whole in this. And I think sometimes people fly under the radar for a long time, like Epstein did as well, because people are scared. People want to still climb the ranks. And we're doing it all the while sort of.

sacrificing the safety of these these young victims or girls that are involved in this and that is deeply troubling before we get into more of this i i hear you and i think you know it's really really frightening to think about i mean i read all these allegations and the lawsuits and i was i've never heard anything like it um and obviously we don't know exactly where this investigation's going but if combs is charged with federal crimes here but he's not in the country and he's actually in a country or a jurisdiction where there's no extradition agreement, how do you get him back? What do federal authorities do? That's a really good question.

I looked up just because I was curious, I was really about it. I don't know all of them off the top of my head. Some I do, some I don't. But we do have an extradition treaty with them. Right now, though, because of the public nature of this, I have a very hard time believing that a country would allow his plane to land with him on it in their country. They don't have to let him land. they don't want to. And so I think that it would be very difficult for him to be able to land

in an inhospitable country simply because they don't want him. We do have extradition treaties with more countries than I think people would think. And typically they will send folks back to us as long as we take the death penalty off of the table. And I don't believe that this is a death penalty case. It's the Southern District of New York. And so I believe that whether we have an extradition tree or not with whatever country he may or may not go to, they will send him back. And talk to me about what you think they have in terms of a case, because, right, you say they want to preserve the evidence for a potential prosecution against either him or someone else.

There's a criminal case building. But they had to have probable cause for the search warrant to be issued. And I wonder, you know, I mentioned some of the interviews. They wouldn't have had enough to just to try to arrest him first. and then do the raid, or they need the raid first to see what's at the property before they can build a case and build charges and then arrest them. Talk to me about the timeline of how this typically works in terms of if we're seeing a raid on several properties. Does that in conjunction with an arrest? Does that come before an arrest? Does that, you know, how does it typically

work? Typically, Jesse, it's in conjunction with an arrest. But I started thinking about this a little bit more last night. And I was thinking that if he has videos and or his assistant, have videos and they are attempting to distribute those of young male children or female children. That means that a child is an imminent danger. And so part of me wonders if this was done to stop that and that they will get to the arrest obviously at some point. Because, you know, as you mentioned, typically these these warrants are served and there's usually an indictment that goes, you know, hand in hand with that at the same time. So in my opinion, it's not unheard of. It's just a little bit unusual.

We don't typically see this. Anytime we did raids at the FBI of this nature, we also had an arrest warrant for the individual as well. And so it is unusual, but I don't want to say it's unheard of. And again, I'm just speculating, but part of me wonders if this was still actively being distributed. And if it is, they need to shut that down immediately. Were you surprised at the response that we saw from Douglas Wigdorf? This is a lawyer for Cassie Ventura and one of the Jane Does in response to reports of this search warrant that was issued on Sean Combs. Now, remember, Cassie Ventura settled with Sean Combs.

But the statement says, quote, we will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct. Now, again, in light of that settlement, settlement doesn't necessarily mean you're saying Combs is completely innocent. it's you've agreed to resolve the issue doesn't you know absolve him of wrongdoing but to make that statement I think that's something to be said now again of course he's representing someone else that's continually suing Sean Combs but again that that statement I thought was really interesting what was your take on it yeah I thought that that statement was interesting um my my question about it though is did he tithe off did he provide them with information um you know did cassie venturer or any of these

individuals involved in these civil suits also provide evidence along with that to build this criminal case because obviously those two things are separate. So in my opinion, in listening to that statement, it actually sounds like maybe they did. And that's incredible that they did that because I believe that Cassie Ventra was absolutely a victim of pretty horrific things. And if she was able to document all of that and provide evidence, then that absolutely would go to building his criminal case. It's just, it's so crazy to think about this. I mean, it's, again, and I'm not surprised by that connection to New York because I go back to Little Rod Jones, and he said he was assaulted at different places, including in New York. So again, what can we

expect next to happen as this story develops? And I imagine it's going to develop quite rapidly. I agree with you. I think it's going to develop quite rapidly as well. I think the next thing that will happen is an indictment of P. Diddy. That's what I think and that he will be taken into custody hopefully soon at some point. But honestly, I'm not sure. This is, like I said, a little bit unusual and that there isn't an indictment yet, although I think one may be forthcoming. What about other individuals? Because remember, going back to one of the lawsuits, there was an allegation. There were violations of the TVPA, the Trafficking and Victims Protection Act. Big law aimed at fighting against domestic and international human slavery. And it was a, they were filing a action with respect to it. But you're basically saying these minors are engaging in commercial sex acts. I would imagine that if this is a really big operation, we could potentially see arrests of other individuals connected to the rapper, right? I agree. I think we will probably see the arrest of one or both of his sons, because I believe that they, based on evidence in

cases that we've seen in the past from civil perspective, they have been allegedly involved in this. But at the same time, too, I think that there may be a lot of people who have associated with him in his circle that are probably scared right now because they may have had some involvement in this as well. And so in my opinion, I think they will start at the top, obviously arresting Diddy or his sons. And from there, in my opinion, they may try to flee. I don't think he's going to completely avoid jail time or anything like that if he's indicted. But maybe they will try to plead to get names of other individuals that are associated with this. But again, completely my hypothesis, Jesse. And I'll leave on this.

There was reporting. There was an allegation that Combs may have been allegedly harassing Mr. Jones because of that lawsuit that he filed. Jones alleges that Combs sent agents to intimidate his eight-year-old daughter and the mother of his child and his ex-wives. So you talk about the imminence of this raid. You talk about the manpower put forward by this raid. If that is true, and again, we don't know if it's connected to the law. lawsuit in any way, but that's something else to think about, right? 100%. He has a pretty long documented history of threatening individuals and asking them to,

I guess, clean up his mess or clean up his dirty work, if you will. And so that is not at all surprising to me. And I do assume that individuals who may have been involved in speaking out or testifying in any of these civil cases may also be awarded some type of security and protection as well. Tracy Walder, you're the best. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. you for having me, Jesse. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.