NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday night in New York, where he faces a sealed criminal indictment, prosecutors announced Monday night.
Details of the charges were not immediately released by prosecutors, but the hip-hop mogul has faced a series of allegations from women in recent months accusing him of sexual assault.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that federal agents arrested Combs. “We expect to unseal the indictment this morning and will have more details to share at that time.”
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, released a statement saying, “We are disappointed by the decision to pursue what we consider to be an unfair prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
He added that Combs had traveled to New York last week in anticipation of the charges that would be brought against him.
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.
Combs was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby and is in federal custody, said a person familiar with the arrest who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The criminal charges represent a major, but not unexpected, blow to one of the most prominent producers and most famous names in hip-hop history.
The federal investigation into Combs, 58, came to light when agents from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations executed simultaneous search warrants and raids on Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.
His lawyer Aaron Dyer said the day after the raids that they constituted “a crude use of military-level force,” that the allegations were “baseless” and that Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.
Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, was at the center of the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s as the partner and producer of Notorious B.I.G., who was gunned down in 1997. But like many who survived that era, his public image softened with age to that of a distinguished host of Hollywood and Hamptons parties, a forward-thinking businessman and a doting father who spoiled his children, some of whom lost their mothers in 2018.
But a different picture began to emerge in November, when his former protégé and girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, became the first of many people to sue him for sexual abuse, with stories of a steady stream of sex workers in drug-fueled environments where some of those involved were coerced or cajoled into having sex.
In her complaint filed in November, Cassie alleged years of abuse, including beatings and rape. Her complaint also alleged that Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “obliging her to engage in coerced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and “harboring and transporting plaintiff for sexual purposes induced by force, fraud or coercion.”
He also said he forced her to help him traffic male sex workers with whom Combs forced Cassie to have sex while he filmed.
The lawsuit was settled out of court the next day, but its repercussions lasted much longer. Combs lost his last allies, supporters and those who reserved judgment when CNN aired video in May of him punching, kicking and throwing Cassie to the ground in a hotel hallway.
The next day, in his first real admission of wrongdoing since the allegations began, Combs posted a video on social media in which he apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s trial was followed by at least a half-dozen others in the months that followed.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of coercing him into soliciting prostitutes and pressuring him to have sex with them.
Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her 20 years ago when she was 17.
Another woman who filed the complaint, April Lampos, said she was a college student in 1994 when she met Combs and that a series of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Combs and his entourage began that lasted for years.
Combs and his attorneys have denied nearly all of the lawsuits’ allegations.
Although authorities have not publicly stated that the lawsuits triggered the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the arrest warrants were served that the case was based on “baseless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
The AP generally does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Cassie and Lampros have done.
As the founder of Bad Boy Records, Combs has become one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the last three decades. Alongside Notorious B.I.G., he has worked with many top artists, including Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.
Combs’ roles in his businesses beyond music — including lucrative private-label spirits, a media company and the Sean John fashion line — took major hits when the allegations arose.
The consequences were even more serious when the video of the beating was revealed. Howard University cut all ties with him and he returned his key to the City of New York at the request of the mayor.
Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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