4 Males File Sexual Assault Lawsuits Against Sean “Diddy” Combs
The rapper and music mogul is beset by additional lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault, bringing the total current number to 18.
Rapper and record producer Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with six new lawsuits filed against him in federal court, including four in which the plaintiffs are men, claiming the music mogul sexually assaulted them.
The assaults are alleged to have taken place at industry events, “exclusive” after-parties, and Combs’ famous “White Parties” in the Hamptons between 1995 and 2021. The latest suits bring the total number of sexual assault accusations against Combs to 18, reports The New York Times.
Two of the men have accused Combs of assaulting them at his star-studded White Party. One victim, who was 16 at the time of the alleged assault in 1998, claims Combs told him to drop his pants and proceeded to fondle his genitals. Combs allegedly told the boy, who was trying to break into the music industry, that the assault was a “rite of passage.”
The second White Party victim, who was working a last-minute security detail at an event in 2006, said he felt “extremely ill” after drinking a beverage laced with narcotics. He claims Combs pushed him into a van and raped him, according to the lawsuit.
A third male victim says he was attacked in 2008 at Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan, where Combs was promoting his Sean John clothing line.
The man, who was an employee of Ecko, a rival clothing brand, claims Combs confronted him in a stockroom and forced him to perform oral sex as three armed bodyguards watched. That lawsuit also names Macy’s as a defendant, as the man alleges he reported the sexual assault to security, only to be fired three weeks later.
The fourth male victim, a music consultant, claims he was assaulted in 2021 at another Combs party. He say he felt disoriented after consuming a drink he was given. He claims that while incapacitated, he was taken to a back room and raped by multiple men, including Combs.
The remaining two lawsuits were filed by women who claim they were raped by Combs at parties in New York City, including one woman who says she was raped and physically assaulted in the bathroom at a promotional party for a music video by the rapper Notorious B.I.G.
All of the victims have filed their claims anonymously, presumably to protect their identities.
The newest lawsuits were brought by a Houston-based personal injury lawyer, Tony Buzbee, who has used Instagram and a widely publicized news conference to solicit clients, in which he spoke in front of a backdrop displaying a large red hotline number that people with allegations of impropriety by Combs could call.
Buzbee claims that after the news conference, the hotline was flooded with “thousands” of calls in one 24-hour period.
Combs’ lawyers have pointed to Buzbee’s alleged showboating, his solicitation of clients on social media, and the hotline number in an attempt to cast doubt on the veracity of the latest accusations against their client. Buzbee told the Times in an email, however, that the allegations are being carefully vetted and that the legal team has utilized more than 100 screeners and 30 lawyers.
In addition to Buzbee, the legal team representing the latest victims includes Andrew van Arsdale, known for arguing on behalf of hundreds of victims in a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America. Buzbee and van Arsdale previously claimed they would be filing over 100 lawsuits against Combs in New York, California, and Florida. They say the alleged victims range in age from 9 to 38 at the time of the assaults.
Separately, Combs has been beset by sexual assault lawsuits from other individuals, many of which were filed after Combs settled a lawsuit brought by the singer Cassie, his former girlfriend, who alleged that he had subjected her to years of physical and sexual abuse. Combs has repeatedly denied the allegations against him in those remaining lawsuits.
The deluge of sexual assault lawsuits only adds to Combs’ legal woes. The music mogul is currently imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial for federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. In that case, he is accused of abusing, threatening, and coercing multiple women into engaging in days-long sexual liaisons with male commercial sex workers, some of whom were transported across state lines.
The events, dubbed “Freak Offs,” were elaborate sex performances that Combs allegedly arranged, directed, and electronically recorded — later using those videos to blackmail individuals, according to prosecutors. To ensure compliance, Combs allegedly plied participants with narcotics, threatened to cut off financial support, threatened to ruin their reputation or careers, and subjected them to physical abuse, according to an indictment obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the racketeering and sex trafficking charges against him. In response to the latest six lawsuits, his lawyers said that “Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”
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