Two days after federal authorities searched his houses in a probe of intercourse trafficking, Sean “Diddy” Combs stays in the US and vows to combat the allegations, sources near the music legend stated.
His 17,000-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion, the place Combs debuted his final album a 12 months in the past, was flooded with Homeland Safety Division brokers who gathered proof on behalf of an investigation being run by the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York, in response to regulation enforcement officers acquainted with the inquiry. His Miami dwelling was additionally searched.
Sources with data of the state of affairs stated Combs was scheduled on Monday to depart by airplane for a spring break trip along with his school-age daughters however opted to delay the journey after studying of the search. He nonetheless has his passport, they added. The sources spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly.
Homeland Safety brokers didn’t detain Combs at an government airport in Miami, however they did cease a airplane on the bottom, they stated.
Miami-Dade cops who accompanied them arrested Brendan Paul, a person in Combs’ entourage, after cocaine and marijuana-laced sweet was allegedly present in his bag.
Paul, 25, was lately described in a lawsuit towards Combs as his “mule” for narcotics and firearms.
Authorities have declined to touch upon the case, and Combs has not been charged with any crime.
Regulation enforcement sources with data of the sex-trafficking investigation stated federal authorities have interviewed at the very least three ladies however declined to supply any particulars.
Combs’ former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, the singer generally known as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of rape and repeated bodily assaults and stated he compelled her to have intercourse with male prostitutes as he watched. Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a go well with of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the assault after which distributing the footage with out her consent.
One other girl, Liza Gardner, filed a 3rd go well with during which she claimed Combs and R&B singer Aaron Corridor sexually assaulted her. Corridor couldn’t be reached for remark.
One other lawsuit alleges that Combs and former Dangerous Boy label President Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old lady. Pierre stated in an announcement that the allegations had been “disgusting,” “false” and a “determined try for monetary achieve.”
Aaron Dyer, one in all Combs’ legal professionals, on Tuesday referred to as the raids a “witch hunt” and criticized how they had been carried out.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level drive as search warrants had been executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” Dyer stated in an announcement. “This unprecedented ambush — paired with a sophisticated, coordinated media presence — results in a untimely rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing greater than a witch hunt based mostly on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits. There was no discovering of prison or civil legal responsibility with any of those allegations.”
The sources stated that it appeared investigators looking out Combs’ L.A. dwelling emptied safes, dismantled electronics and left papers strewn in some rooms.
