Since federal brokers raided two of Sean Combs’s properties in Los Angeles and the Miami space on March 25, the investigation into the hip-hop mogul has turn out to be the topic of intense public curiosity and hypothesis.
The raids had been carried out by Homeland Safety Investigations, which has stated little or no concerning the focus of its inquiry. No legal costs have been filed in opposition to Mr. Combs in relation to the case.
However the footage of federal officers brandishing weapons whereas getting into Mr. Combs’s sprawling Los Angeles mansion, the place they confiscated computer systems and different units, has raised questions concerning the nature of the investigation and the way it would possibly relate to a collection of civil sexual assault lawsuits filed in opposition to Mr. Combs in latest months.
Mr. Combs — a high-profile music producer and artist for many years who has been lauded as one of many architects of hip-hop’s business rise — has vehemently denied all of the accusations, and his lawyer referred to as the raids a “witch hunt based mostly on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
As particulars concerning the federal investigation regularly emerge, here’s what we find out about Mr. Combs’s authorized troubles.
What occurred in the course of the raids?
On the afternoon of March 25, federal brokers raided residences related to Mr. Combs, 54, in Florida and California. Footage of the Los Angeles raid taken by a neighborhood tv station, Fox 11, captured brokers submitting previous manicured hedges and into Mr. Combs’s residence.
Video of Mr. Combs’s residence displaying the aftermath of the raid that was revealed by TMZ confirmed belongings spilling out of cupboards and a set of empty cabinets with Mr. Combs’s three Grammys sitting on prime.
Mr. Combs was stopped that day at an airport within the Miami space as he was getting ready to go away for the Bahamas, in accordance with an individual with data of the matter, who famous that federal brokers took quite a lot of digital units from him. Mr. Combs cooperated with authorities and was not detained, his lawyer stated.
A federal official stated the inquiry into Mr. Combs was not less than partly a human trafficking investigation. Homeland Safety Investigations typically leads inquiries into trafficking. It’s not clear precisely how the federal investigation pertains to the civil lawsuits filed in opposition to Mr. Combs, however all the civil fits accused him of violating intercourse trafficking legal guidelines.
What has Mr. Combs been accused of within the lawsuits?
The dramatic raids on Mr. Combs’s properties observe a collection of lawsuits, through which 4 girls have accused him of rape and sexual assault and a person accused him of undesirable sexual contact.
A number of of the lawsuits accused Mr. Combs of human trafficking, with two of the plaintiffs accusing him of forcing them to take part in sexual encounters with prostitutes.
The primary lawsuit was filed by his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who makes music because the singer Cassie. She accused Mr. Combs of rape, bodily abuse and compelled intercourse with male prostitutes. The swimsuit was settled simply someday later, with each Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura saying their dispute had been resolved “amicably.”
On Might 17, CNN posted surveillance footage that appeared to point out Combs bodily assaulting and kicking Ms. Ventura in a way according to allegations she made in opposition to him the lawsuit a few 2016 incident an InterContinental Lodge in Los Angeles.
The video confirmed Mr. Combs grabbing Ms. Ventura and throwing her to the bottom, kicking her twice and starting to tug her down the hallway by her sweatshirt. A lawyer representing Ms. Ventura, Douglas H. Wigdor, confirmed that the lady being assaulted within the video is his consumer.
Three extra lawsuits accusing Combs of rape had been filed after Ms. Ventura’s swimsuit.
In a single, the plaintiff, Joi Dickerson-Neal, accused Mr. Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was a school pupil in 1991.
One other lawsuit, filed by a lady named Liza Gardner, additionally described allegations from the early Nineties. She accused Mr. Combs of coercing her into intercourse after which, a few days later, choking her so laborious that she handed out.
A fourth lady, who filed her lawsuit anonymously, accused Mr. Combs and two different males of gang raping her in a recording studio in 2003, when she was 17. The decide in that case has dominated that — pending a movement to dismiss that was filed by Mr. Combs’s attorneys — the lady must use her actual identify if she needs to proceed with the case.
The newest lawsuit filed in opposition to Mr. Combs, in February, was introduced by a music producer, Rodney Jones Jr., who labored on his most up-to-date solo album. Mr. Jones, also referred to as Lil Rod, accused Mr. Combs of constructing undesirable sexual contact and forcing him to rent prostitutes and take part in intercourse acts with them.
It’s not clear how precisely the civil fits issue into the federal investigation, however federal investigators in New York have been conducting interviews asking potential witnesses about sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to Mr. Combs for a number of months, in accordance with an individual aware of the interviews.
The legal inquiry is being carried out by federal prosecutors within the Southern District of New York and federal brokers with Homeland Safety, a law-enforcement official stated.
How has Mr. Combs responded?
Mr. Combs has denied all the allegations in opposition to him. In a press release launched on the day the fourth lawsuit was filed, Mr. Combs stated, “Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged. I’ll battle for my identify, my household and for the reality.”
A lawyer for Mr. Combs, Jonathan D. Davis, stated in a court docket submitting in response to the gang rape lawsuit that the defendants’ reputations had been “irreparably broken” and that the accusations “resulted in them turning into victims of the ‘cancel tradition’ frenzy within the courts — properly earlier than any proof has been offered, and on the idea of rank, uncorroborated allegations.”
A day after the raids, one other one in all Mr. Combs’s attorneys, Aaron Dyer, criticized the strategy by Homeland Safety, calling it a “gross overuse of military-level power” and an “unprecedented ambush.”
“There was no discovering of legal or civil legal responsibility with any of those allegations,” Mr. Dyer stated in a press release.
Legal professionals for Mr. Combs have begun to file motions to dismiss the sexual assault lawsuits in court docket. Within the case filed by Ms. Dickerson-Neal, Mr. Davis argued in court docket paperwork that the lawsuit contained “quite a few false, offensive, and salacious accusations” and sought to have it thrown out based mostly on its reliance on statutes that didn’t exist in 1991, the time of the alleged assault.
In his movement to dismiss the gang-rape lawsuit, Mr. Davis referred to as it an “fully false and hideous” claims designed to trigger Mr. Combs “undesirable publicity, embarrassment, and monetary prices.”
Has anybody been arrested?
The one identified arrest was of a 25-year-old affiliate of Mr. Combs who was charged with cocaine possession.
The affiliate, Brendan Paul, was arrested on Monday at Miami-Opa Locka Govt Airport, the place federal brokers stopped Mr. Combs. A former Division I faculty basketball participant, Mr. Paul, who was launched on bond, has posted on social media up to now about working with Mr. Combs.
The lawsuit filed by Mr. Jones, the music producer, accused Mr. Paul of working as Mr. Combs’s “mule,” claiming that he acquired and distributed medication and weapons for him. It additionally stated that he generally negotiated charges for prostitutes for Mr. Combs. The lawsuit doesn’t embrace Mr. Paul as a defendant.
A lawyer representing Mr. Paul, Brian H. Bieber, stated in a press release on Might 16 that Mr. Paul had accepted prosecutors’s provide to enter a pretrial diversion program, after which prosecutors will dismiss the case. This system, which entails a substance abuse course, is obtainable to nonviolent defendants with no legal document.
Hamed Aleaziz and William Ok. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
