This article mentions sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.
(NewsNation) — Six lawsuits were filed Monday against music producer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs that allege he sexually assaulted two men and two women between 1995 and 2021.
These suits were filed anonymously in the Southern District of New York. Among them is one by a man who says he was a minor at the time of the assault.
“Defendant Sean Combs routinely recruited individuals to parties, drugged them, and then sexually exploited them,” according to a complaint.
A lawsuit filed by a man from North Carolina states Combs was talking to him about the music industry when he ordered the then 16-year-old to drop his pants.
“Don’t you want to break into the business?” the lawsuit alleges Combs asked him.
Then, the lawsuit said, Combs grabbed and began feeling the teenager’s genitals.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani tells “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that if the accusations made by a minor against Diddy were included in his federal indictment, much of his defense’s argument about consenting relations between adults would go out the window.
But that’s only if these civil suits influence the trial — which Rahmani said would only happen if the victims come forward and testify.
Monday’s suits were filed by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who previously said he’s representing 120 people who’ve experienced sexual misconduct by Combs.
“There’s an overarching theme here, as you probably can see, which is basically Sean Combs feels like he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it,” Buzbee said in an interview with NBC News before filing the documents.
In addition to multiple civil suits filed, the first being one by Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, the producer is also criminally charged with sex trafficking and racketeering. A grand jury indicted Combs, who is now being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn despite attempts by his defense attorneys to get him freed on bail.
Attorneys for Combs told NewsNation that the rap mogul “has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”
“The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity. Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail.”
Previously, attorney Erica Wolff said Combs “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.” “That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” Wolff said in a statement.
Another suit filed Monday alleges Combs raped a woman when she was a college freshman in a locked hotel room in 2004. Combs, the lawsuit said, invited the woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” and a friend to a party there, where he gave them drinks and told them to snort cocaine.
The woman said in the lawsuit that Combs forced her friend to perform oral sex on him and threatened to have them both killed if they didn’t do what he wanted.
In a different lawsuit, a separate Jane Doe says Combs attacked her in the bathroom at a 2005 party celebrating the late rapper Biggie Smalls’ music video, “One More Chance.” Combs, according to the lawsuit, brought the woman into the bathroom and started kissing her. The woman tried to pull away, she said, but he slammed her head against the wall, and she fell to the floor.
When she tried to get away, Combs hit her and raped her, the woman says. After, Combs allegedly told her not to tell anyone, “or you will disappear.”
A man identified as John Doe said that Combs gave him an alcoholic drink at his white party in 2006 that he believes included a drug that made him sick. Then, the lawsuit said, Combs pushed John Doe into a van and sexually assaulted him.
Other incidents detailed in lawsuits include a man stating he was forced to give Combs oral sex in a Macy’s stockroom in Manhattan’s Herald Square, as well as one where a man says the producer gave him a drugged beverage. At one point, the man, who says multiple men assaulted him, saw Combs naked above him, according to the lawsuit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
