Today, Explained - How Cassie sued Diddy

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Sean "Diddy" Combs is the latest high-profile figure to be accused of sexual assault under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a law that expires this week. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin and Isabel Angel, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by David Herman, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The world came to know Sean Combs as Puff Daddy in the 90s. And then, before long, he was P. Diddy, which then got shortened to just Diddy. And then, for a moment, he tried to get everyone to call him Love. But it's doubtful anyone's going to call him that now that the singer Cassie has sued Sean Combs for rape and abuse. Ventura alleges that Combs not only raped her, but over the course of a decade, physically abused her, as well as, quote, lured her into a drug-fueled lifestyle. But almost immediately after we heard about those charges, they sort of disappeared.

Moments ago, word coming out that Combs and R&B singer Cassandra Ventura have settled the lawsuit. Both sides releasing statements moments ago saying they agreed to resolve the matter amicably. And it's not just the charges. The very law that allowed Cassie to sue Diddy expires this week. All that's coming up on Today Explained. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA,

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Today X Night It's Today X Night To hear more about Cassie and Diddy, we reached out to Sydney Madden. She reports on hip-hop and R&B for NPR Music. We started with Sean Combs. Diddy has been a name in the hip-hop space, in the music space, in just the fabric of American pop culture for more than three decades at this point. He's credited with shaping the careers of Notorious B.I.G. It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine.

Salt and pepper and heavy D up in the limousine. Mary J. Blige. Carl Thomas. You remind me of a love that I once knew Carl Thomas Wish I'd never met her at all All of these really big names in music. He's also a mogul in many other industries as well. But in the specific case of he and Cassie's career and relationship,

it dates back to the early 2000s. So according to the civil suit, the two met in 2005 when Cassie was 19 and Diddy, who was already a solidified music mogul, was 37 years old. And Cassie was at the very, very beginnings of her career. And she was actually signed to a different label at the time, but Diddy's label, Bad Boy Entertainment, partnered with her current label to release her debut singles and her debut album. So from the time they met, he was effectively her boss. In 2006, that was Cassie's debut singles called Me and You. If anybody knows early 2000s hip-hop and R&B, it was a big hit. It rose to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. And according to the paperwork of the lawsuit, after advancing on Cassie a few different times from the moment they met,

Diddy showed up uninvited at her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas and he forcibly kissed her. And that's really where the cycle of their romantic relationship and the cycle of abuse started. So effectively, these allegations span the entirety of their romantic relationship and the entirety of Cassie's music career. And it really puts Cassie's music career in a whole new light. Now that you see she's only dropped a few singles over the years, she's only been able to put out one album. So it's really changing the conversation around where her star might have been dimmed and where it might have been cut short in the music industry because of her relationship with Diddy. So these allegations come out last week. What exactly does Cassie accuse Diddy of?

A lot. It's a 35-page civil suit, and it details decades of physical and psychological abuse, coercion, sex trafficking, an instance of rape in her own home, forcibly held her against her will, kidnapped her and sent her on paid vacations, and I'm using that very liberally, when she was sent to places to recover from all the injuries that he invoked on her. One of the allegations that was outlined in the suit was a time when Diddy and Cassie were kind of on a break in their relationship and Cassie engaged in a new relationship with the rapper Kid Cudi. I've been trying to make you love me. And this infuriated Diddy so much that he threatened to blow up Kid Cudi's car while Cassie and Diddy were at Paris Fashion Week.

And in a report from the New York Times, they got a confirmation from Kid Cudi's camp that, yes, his car did blow up in his driveway around that time. Just bananas. Yeah, it's something, it's like something out of a movie, but it's almost too horrific to make up at the same time. So it really just paints a picture of decades of his power, influence, and ultimately her oppression in the relationship. If you're going to compare this to something like what we saw with R. Kelly, for example, there were signs along the way for many, many years that R. Kelly had a lot of demons in his closet. Were there signs with Diddy? Did people have any sense of this troubled relationship that Cassie's portraying?

Well, I will say Diddy does have a public history of violence. In the 90s, Interscope exec by the name of Steve Stout, he reported that Diddy and some of his associates, some of his accomplices, burst into his office at the record label and attacked him and busted up his whole office. He pled guilty and was ordered to serve a single day of anger management class. In 1999, Diddy was charged with gun possession for a nightclub altercation that had the mugshots of him and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez all over the news.

Prosecutors say one of Combs' associates opened fire while Combs reportedly pulled out a pistol of his own. Combs and Lopez fled the club, speeding away in his chauffeur Jeep. I don't want to deal too much in rumors. There have been conversations and whispers about his level of influence and control on the women he's romantically involved with for a long time. In the wake of this lawsuit coming to light last week, there's been a lot of people digging up old interview quotes. Kamorley Simmons said in a 2004 interview that Diddy threatened to punch her while she was pregnant.

There have been former romantic partners of Diddy's coming forward saying that they were also physically and psychologically abused um and I don't know it really feels like a chicken's coming home to roost type moment for for kind of the layer and underbelly of his personality and his behaviors that so much of the public who's just casually seeing him, you know, live a luxurious lifestyle and prop up artists over the years that they probably did not know about. So what did Diddy say initially

when these allegations became public last week? Initially, when the suit went public and it was getting picked up by the news, Diddy's camp didn't really have that much to say. He spoke through his lawyer and Diddy vehemently denied all these allegations. His attorney calling them offensive and outrageous, writing in part,

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 their relationship. And then, of course, within a day or two, this thing gets settled? Yep. And I will say, in my time covering music news professionally and my time being a fan of this genre and this culture for my entire life. This is one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever seen. So within less than 24 hours of the lawsuit going public and being picked up by all these news outlets, yeah, they settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Cassandra Ventura

writing in a statement, 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 for Diddy, through his representation, he said, just so we're clear, a decision to settle is in no way an admission of wrongdoing. It does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims, but that he is happy that a mutual settlement came to fruition and he wishes Ms. Ventura the best.

But, I mean, once you hear the details and the specificity and just the insidious and mean-spirited motivations behind some of these acts in this civil lawsuit, it's hard to unhear. It's hard to unknow. And you can pretend to unknow it, but the long-term effects of this are going to be substantial and probably seismic. For Diddy or for the industry? Or both? I would venture to say both. The fact that this was settled within 24 hours means that

his reputation, I don't know for any deals going on, I don't know for anybody's pockets, but his reputation is unequivocally changed. This has changed the trajectory of what people think of him, his legacy in the music industry and in pop culture. In terms of the industry, I think it's a bit too early to say. We've had moments of when people have called out powerful men in the music industry in the past, and it's not had the same type of culture-wide reckoning that it has in other industries. When it comes to the hip-hop space, there's been people like Russell Simmons, L.A. Reid, who've all been accused. And in the podcast that I host,

Louder Than a Riot, we talk to a lot of people about this phenomenon that's specific to hip-hop. We talked to Jamila Lumieu, Tarana Burke, and they explain how there's an added layer of secrecy and suppression because in hip-hop specifically, it's looked at as a betrayal to engage with America's judicial system to solve these issues because of the way that Black men have disproportionately been targeted by the judicial system in the past.

Black women are fearful and protective of our men because we don't want to be seen in that same tradition, right, of weaponizing sexual violence, even when it actually happened to us. So you have Black women questioning themselves and sacrificing themselves even. So that's why a big suit like this against one of the most powerful and visible men in all of hip-hop. That's why this is a bombshell. A lot of these allegations are about things that happened years and years ago.

Why is this all happening right now? Why is this all coming out now? The suit details that their relationship went on for over a decade. She officially got off the label in 2019, so that means he wasn't her boss anymore also in 2019. And she filed this suit under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which was recently passed bill that opens up a one-year look-back window,

allowing adult survivors whose statutes of limitations maybe have expired on the event. It allows them the ability to file a civil suit against the accuser. And so in talking to advocates for this bill, for our reporting, the Survivors Act is really to account for how a victim of abuse may not be able to come forward right away for financial reasons or psychological reasons. Sometimes you can't see a bad situation until you're out of it or in some cases for

fear of your very livelihood or your life. Sydney Madden, NPR Music, Louder Than a Riot. When we're back on today, explained more on this law that led Cassie Sue Diddy and why it's expiring this week. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You can go to ramp.com slash explained.

Ramp.com slash explained. R-A-M-P dot com slash explained. R-A-M-P dot com slash explained. Cards issued by Sutton Bank. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. today explained comes from ramp. If you're a finance manager, you're probably used to having to toggle between multiple disjointed tools just to keep track of everything. And sometimes that means there's limited visibility on business spend. I don't know what any of that means, but ramp might be able to help ramp is a corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your back pocket. Ramps accounting software automatically collects receipts categorizes your expenses in real time, you can say goodbye, Thank you. business needs, and you can have peace of mind. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained. Cards are issued by Sutton Bank, a member of the FDIC, and terms and conditions do apply. today explained ramas firm we wanted to find out more about the adult survivors act and why this

new york law that let cassie sue diddy is expiring so we got in touch with a lawyer megan goddard founder of goddard law firm in new york city The Adult Survivors Act has really flipped the script here in New York for survivors of sexual assault and for abusers who have had the luxury of getting away with sexual assaults for a variety of reasons. Starting Thursday, the Adult Survivors Act will waive the normal deadlines for filing lawsuits over sex crimes. This one-year window will allow victims who suffered abuse years or even decades ago to file claims. Any adult who was assaulted, sexually assaulted ever in New York could sue over the last year. Okay, and where did this Adult Survivors Act and this one-year window come from exactly? What's the backstory?

There's been a movement across the country and in some parts of the world even to recognize that survivors of trauma cannot act in the immediate aftermath of their attacks and assaults. And following the Me Too movement, I think it was sort of widely recognized that the laws just didn't allow enough opportunity for justice. They told us, you don't look like a victim. No one will believe you. You're too queer. Men don't get assaulted.

And then they told us it was too late. Why didn't you say something sooner? But now we have a chance. Because now we have the Adult Survivors Act. Starting November 24, 2022, survivors who were 18 years or older at the time of their abuse and are currently outside of the statute of limitations

can sue their abuser. Or the institution that protected them. In civil court. No matter how long ago the abuse happened survivors have one year to take action it doesn't matter if it was your coach your cab driver your doctor your prison guard your boss we all deserve a chance at justice. This is for us. This is for all of us. Give us a sense of what things looked like before this Adult Survivors Act and what things look like now, at least until the end of the week when it expires. So actually things look much better even after the act expires in 2019, our governor, Governor Hochul, changed the statute of limitations for many sexual assaults. And those limitations are for a number of different years, including up to 20 years for certain sex assaults.

So things are much better now. When it came to sexual assault, our laws were protecting the abusers more than not, specifically when it came to something known as the statute of limitations, which sounds harmless. Statute of limitations, what could be wrong with that? Except it was a barrier to justice for too long. Some of the underlying civil laws still have shorter statutes of limitations. But I think in general, aside from just what the laws are going to be moving forward, I think that the Adult Survivors Act, even though it's ending, created a lot of awareness and, to be frank, a lot of fear for assaulters. And I think that it also put companies on notice and institutions on notice

that they better protect the people on their properties and in their places of business and in their employment because they could be held accountable for the acts of individuals who are assaulting people. As long as I've been practicing, if you wanted to sue for retaliation, sexual harassment related to a sexual assault under the New York City or New York State human rights law, you only had three years to do so. So someone who was raped by their manager at a hotel in New York 10 years ago, if they called me and said, hey, 10 years ago, I was raped by my boss in a hotel room in New York. Is there anything you can do for me? There wouldn't have been anything I could have done for them until this law came into existence, until this

window was opened. Was there like a flood of cases that were filed as a result of this law? Were you getting lots of calls? Did it feel like a game-changing moment in New York? You know, I think that the community, meaning the plaintiff's sort of discrimination bar here in New York, thought that there would be a flood of cases. But in retrospect, I think, you know, it's hard to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit. It's hard to talk about terrible things that have happened to you. It's difficult to end up in the newspapers. Many of my clients who filed these cases ended up in the newspaper. So in retrospect, I'm not as surprised that the cases were limited. There are lots of people who called and ultimately decided that filing a lawsuit wasn't the right

move for them. You know, often the abusers are dead. The companies are no longer in business. Some people thought like, well, it doesn't seem worth chasing, right? And then there's other people who said, you know what? I don't care if I don't recover. I want my story noted in the history books, right? I want my abuser's family to know what he did. I want the world to know what this company allowed to happen or whatever it is. I still think that every victim was better off and more empowered from this law being in existence because they got to decide. But I don't think that suing is necessarily the right answer for everyone.

But I think so far there's been approximately 2,500 cases filed altogether. Tonight, nearly 750 women are getting ready to file lawsuits against the state of New York. They say they were sexually abused while they were inmates at state prisons and jails. The victims claim the assaults stretch all the way back for decades. Writer E. Jean Carroll taking the stand in the second day of her civil battery and defamation case against former President Donald Trump. Are you looking forward to testifying today? The first question her attorney asked, why she finally took her case to court.

I'm here because Donald Trump raped me. It seems like this law has meant a lot to survivors of abuse. It seems like, as you said, it's scared a lot of powerful men. There's some tangible gains here. Why is it expiring on Thanksgiving? Why is this window closing? Well, I think probably that the legislative efforts to get this passed were huge, right? But there were people who didn't want it to pass. There were politicians who wouldn't vote to support it. There are politicians who don't think that these kind of lawsuits are good for business, that holding institutions accountable for things that individuals did is good for business. And so I think that the one year was a compromise between politicians.

So I think that the legislators and the activists who were fighting for this took what they could get. There's far reaching positive consequences. Who knows when the law will change again, right? And I think that institutions, companies, schools, universities, hospitals are all on notice that they had better put parameters in place to protect people, to allow them to report, to stop bad actors when they get wind that there's someone who's abusing people because often these people are serial abusers

and often it's the company who looks the other way. And so I think that this scared businesses from a risk assessment perspective and I hope that they'll make their environment safer and so that there's less abuse as a result of this window opening for a year. Megan Goddard, attorney at law. Our program today was produced by Victoria Chamberlain and Isabel Angel. We were edited by Amina Alsadi and fact-checked by Laura Bullard.

David Herman mixed this episode of Today Explained. Thank you.