(Headline USA) Sean “Diddy” Combs was expected to appear before a federal judge in New York on Tuesday after his indictment on undisclosed criminal charges.
The music mogul was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
The indictment detailing the charges was expected to be unsealed Tuesday morning, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Combs’s arrest by the Justice Department follows suspiciously after the news of a second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump by a radical Ukraine war-backer, as if timed to knock the latter from the news cycle. Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have been condemned widely for their stochastic terrorism and use of violent, divisive rhetoric.
Like many Hollywood celebrities—and wealthy black community leaders like Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton—Combs was ones on friendly terms with Trump.
Several pictures have surfaced of the pair posing together since the Combs scandal first broke.
You forgot a few. pic.twitter.com/rNWvgnSScf
— Maile (@MaileOnX) May 28, 2024
Several high-profile rappers have come out publicly supporting Trump in the 2024 election for a variety of reasons ranging from his handling of the economy to his political persecution at the hands of corrupt federal officials.
However, the “All About the Benjamins” performer made clear in 2020 that he was no longer a Trump ally before reluctantly offering his endorsement of Joe Biden, according to CNN.
“If this man is elected, we’re not standing by no more getting killed,” he told popular radio host Charlamagne Tha God.
“We not scared of anybody standing up and standing by,” he said making reference to a loaded question that Trump had received during the 2020 debates, in which he was asked to repudiate a group of counter-demonstrators who had clashed with Antifa, while no such demand was made of Biden.
“We’re on the verge of a race war,” Combs added. “… White men like Trump need to be banished.”
He went on to announce the launch of a new political party, Our Black Party, although it is unclear whether the party actually went beyond the discussion phase. Its last post on Facebook was in 2022, shortly after the midterm election.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, called the new indictment an “unjust prosecution.”
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said in a statement late Monday.
Combs, 58, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.
In November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.
The suit was settled in one day but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”
🚨BREAKING: CNN has released footage of Diddy BEATING his ex – girlfriend in 2016 in a hotel hallway. 😳‼️ pic.twitter.com/fKlB10nKT4
— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) May 17, 2024
Combs and his attorneys, however, denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”
“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.
A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.
A bizarre and unsettling exchange between the rapper and teen pop-star Justin Bieber also resurfaced following the allegations. It appeared to show Combs making reference to a weekend of ribaldry with the 15-year-old, whom he was reportedly chaperoning at the time with no parental supervision.
"What we doin, we can't really disclose. For the next 48 hours he with me & we gonna go buck full crazy."
This clip of Diddy (40) with Justin Bieber (15 years old) is 1,000x creepier now. pic.twitter.com/4pcPpAjjZM
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 26, 2024
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.
In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
