Embattled rapper and hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was spotted laughing and mingling with fans — and even meeting his lawyer on a Central Park bench — in the lead-up to his being hit with federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
The 54-year-old fallen star was snapped engaging with four fans in the middle of Manhattan on Monday night — just 30 minutes before he was nabbed by the feds at the Park Hyatt New York hotel, TMZ reported.
Footage showed a smiling Combs shaking hands with the group before he and his crew were later photographed mingling outside the hotel.
Earlier, Combs and his son, Christian “King” Combs, were pictured strolling around the Big Apple and taking snaps with fans.
It came just days after the music mogul was spotted sitting on a park bench next to a suited-up man that NewsNation identified as his attorney, Marc Agnifilo.
His son was also there for the Friday meet-up, photos show.
The sightings came after Combs made his way to the Big Apple voluntarily last week in anticipation of his looming arrest on the federal charges, according to his lawyer.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses him of hitting and abusing women for over a decade — and presiding over an empire of sexual crimes.
Combs was expected to go before a Manhattan federal court judge later Tuesday.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” his lawyer said in a statement immediately following his arrest.
“He is an imperfect person but is not a criminal. To his credit Mr Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges.”
Combs’ arrest comes roughly six months after the feds raided his mansions in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a sex-trafficking investigation.
He has been slapped with a slew of lawsuits in the past year by people who allege he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse during the height of his fame as a producer in the 1990s and 2000s.
The star was first accused of a years-long pattern of domestic and sexual violence, as well as trafficking, against his ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, in a federal lawsuit she filed against him last November.
Combs has strongly denied the allegations leveled against him.
