WARNING: This text comprises graphic content material and should have an effect on those that have skilled sexual violence or know somebody affected by it.
Two properties belonging to music mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs in Los Angeles and Miami had been searched Monday by federal Homeland Safety Investigations brokers and different regulation enforcement as a part of an ongoing intercourse trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, two regulation enforcement officers informed The Related Press.
It is not clear whether or not Combs was the goal of the investigation. The officers weren’t approved to publicly focus on particulars of the investigation and spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity.
In an announcement, Homeland Safety Investigations stated it “executed regulation enforcement actions as a part of an ongoing investigation, with help from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our native regulation enforcement companions.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Manhattan declined to remark.
On Tuesday, a lawyer for Combs stated the searches of his properties had been “a gross use of military-level pressure” and that Combs is “harmless and can proceed to struggle” to clear his identify.
“There isn’t any excuse for the extreme present of pressure and hostility exhibited by authorities or the best way his youngsters and staff had been handled,” stated the assertion from lawyer Aaron Dyer.
A police line was arrange across the Los Angeles home within the rich Holmby Hills neighborhood close to Beverly Hills. Helicopter video from KABC-TV confirmed a bunch of brokers with vests that indicated they had been from Homeland Safety Investigations gathered within the dwelling’s yard close to the pool. A command put up was arrange outdoors the home and brokers had been nonetheless getting into and leaving hours after the search started.
There have been a number of sexual assault lawsuits filed towards Combs in current months.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have intercourse with them. Combs’s lawyer Shawn Holley has stated of these allegations that “we have now overwhelming, indeniable proof that his claims are full lies.”
Combs’s former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, sued him in November alleging years of sexual abuse, together with rape. The lawsuit stated he pressured her to have intercourse with male prostitutes whereas he filmed them. The go well with was settled the day after it was filed.
One other of Combs’s accusers was a girl who stated the rap producer raped her 20 years in the past when she was 17.
The Related Press doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly as Cassie did.
Combs had stated in a December assertion, “I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged.”
Douglas Wigdor, an lawyer who represents Cassie and one other girl who sued Combs, stated in an announcement Monday, “Hopefully, that is the start of a course of that can maintain Mr. Combs accountable for his wicked conduct.”
It isn’t clear whether or not the search is said to any of the allegations raised within the lawsuits.
Hip-hop empire
Combs is among the many most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time. Previously often known as Puff Daddy, he constructed one in every of hip hop’s greatest empires, blazing a path with a number of entities hooked up to his well-known identify. He’s the founding father of Dangerous Boy Information and a three-time Grammy winner who has labored with a slew of top-tier artists together with Infamous B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Religion Evans and 112.
Combs created the style clothes line Sean John, launched the Revolt TV channel with a deal with music and produced the fact present Making the Band for MTV.
His newest album, The Love Album: Off the Grid, was launched final 12 months, days after Combs was honoured on the MTV Video Music Awards. It was nominated for finest progressive R&B album at February’s Grammy Awards, which the rapper-mogul didn’t attend.
The leisure business has been beset with a gentle stream of career-ending sexual misconduct allegations within the years since tales about film mogul Harvey Weinstein spawned the #MeToo motion in 2017. Weinstein and That ’70s Present star Danny Masterson are every serving jail sentences after rape convictions. Dozens of civil lawsuits have been filed towards distinguished figures.
The music business has not confronted a reckoning to the identical diploma, however singer and producer R. Kelly is serving a jail sentence for sexually abusing younger followers, seven girls have sued hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons alleging he raped them and two girls have sued Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler alleging sexual assault.
Weinstein, Masterson and Kelly are interesting their convictions, and Simmons has denied the entire allegations towards him. One lawsuit towards Tyler has been dismissed and he’s contesting the opposite.
For anybody who has been sexually assaulted, there’s help out there by disaster strains and native help companies by way of this Authorities of Canada web site or the Ending Violence Affiliation of Canada database. When you’re in speedy hazard or concern to your security or that of others round you, please name 911.