Sean 'Diddy' Combs hit with a wave of 120 new sexual assault allegations
Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing dozens of new allegations of sexual assault in a series of lawsuits set to be filed.
At a news conference held Tuesday, Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee said he is representing 120 accusers with allegations against the entertainment mogul that go back more than 20 years.
“We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors. We will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates,” Buzbee said during the news conference.
“Many powerful people ... many dirty secrets,” the lawyer said of the allegations. He added that his team has “collected pictures, video, texts.”
Buzbee added that the allegations will include: “violent sexual assault or rape, facilitated sex with a controlled substance, dissemination of video recordings, sexual abuse of minors.”
“It’s a long list already, but because of the nature of this case, we are going to make sure, damn sure, we are right before we do that,” Buzbee continued. “These names will shock you.”
The lawyer said more than 3,000 individuals have come forward to his office with accusations against Combs and that he plans to begin filing lawsuits in various states within the next 30 days. He added that they will name the other defendants at a later date.
Among this new group of accusers, Buzbee said, 62% identify as African American, and they hail from more than 25 states, with the majority from New York, California, Georgia and Florida. Buzbee said that 25 of the accusers were minors at the time of the alleged incidents, some as early as 1991. The lawyer further claimed one of the accusers was as young as 9 years old at the time of their alleged incident.
“As Mr. Combs’ legal team has emphasized, he 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,” the rapper’s lawyer, Erica Wolff, said in a statement. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court if and when claims are filed and served, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.”
Combs is currently being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, after prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Combs with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in an indictment unsealed last month. Combs pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said he is innocent of all charges.
Combs was denied bail twice, but on Monday his legal team, which now includes attorney Alexandra Shapiro alongside Teny Geragos and Marc Agnifilo, filed the first paperwork ahead of an appeal of the bail decision.
Buzbee has represented victims in several other high-profile lawsuits, including against BP in 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also represented individuals accusing NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct in 2021. That same year, he filed a $750 million lawsuit against Travis Scott after a fatal crowd crush at the rapper’s Astroworld Festival.
Combs’ legal issues have been mounting since his ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, filed an explosive civil suit against him last year, accusing him of assault and sex trafficking over the course of their relationship. Combs, who has vehemently denied the accusations, settled with Ventura for an undisclosed amount. Several months later, surveillance video showing Combs brutally beating Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel leaked, and the mogul apologized for his actions.
Since Ventura’s lawsuit, multiple other lawsuits have been filed against Combs — including one from Dawn Richard, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane who alleged that Combs groped, assaulted and imprisoned her and threatened her life.
Combs has denied all claims against him, calling them “sickening allegations” from people looking for “a quick payday.”
Many of the lawsuits against Combs were filed in New York City, which has the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law allowing people to file lawsuits alleging sexual abuse even after the statute of limitations had passed.
CORRECTION (Oct. 1, 2024, 3:27 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name of one of Diddy’s accusers. It’s Casandra Ventura, not Cassandra Ventura.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com