Understanding the sex trafficking allegations leveled at rapper Diddy and its repercussions in the United States

Why is he only being prosecuted now?

These allegations are part of recent legal measures to combat sexual violence adopted by the State of New York, particularly the Adult Survivors Act (“adult survivors law”). It came into effect on November 24, 2022 and allowed victims to file a complaint of rape or sexual assault, even for prescribed acts, for one year.

It is in this context that the first three complaints against Sean Combs were filed. This law is also at the root of lawsuits targeting other celebrities, such as actor Bill Cosby, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former President Donald Trump, in separate cases.

Another system, the Law for the Protection of Victims of Gender Violence, approved on 1^Ahem In March 2023, a two-year period was opened to bring any prescribed fact to the attention of the courts. In this context, several complaints have been filed against the rapper.

Are other people targeted by these complaints?

Several of Diddy’s relatives are directly incriminated in the complaints and accused, in one way or another, of having participated in gang rapes. Among them, his son Justin Dior Combs, the rapper’s employees, actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and several music industry executives, such as Bad Boys Records president Harve Pierre, Universal Music CEO Lucian Grainge, the former director of Motown Records, Ethiopia Habtemariam. … Sean Combs’ assistant, Kristina Khorram, is compared in a complaint to Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman convicted of recruiting the young women who were sexually abused by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

Harve Pierre disputes “disgusting accusations”, while the star’s bodyguard, Joseph Sherman, “Deny categorically, a billion times”.

What other personalities were mentioned in this matter and why?

Other names of international stars have been cited for having participated in the gigantic social parties organized by Sean Combs in the 1990s and 2000s, the white parties (“white parties”, in reference to the required clothing). This is the case of Leonardo DiCaprio, whom archive photos show with a glass of champagne in his hand next to the rapper, or the billionaire Donald Trump, who had not yet entered politics.

Prince William is also cited in a complaint as an example of a celebrity who would have brought prestige and legitimacy to Diddy. They are not suspected of having participated in or having knowledge of the alleged violations.

Other files have raised concerns, such as a short 2009 documentary titled Justin Bieber’s forty-eight hours with Diddy. The young singer allows himself to be protected by the entrepreneur Sean Combs, who promises to make “the dream of his 15th birthday”do “crazy things”that he “I cannot reveal”.

What is Sean Combs’ defense?

Initially, Sean Combs completely denied the charges against him. Through his lawyers he denounces in November 2023 “fabricated accusations” for financial purposes. But he faces an accumulation of testimonies that incriminate him.

During a spectacular intervention in May, investigators from the United States Department of Homeland Security searched two residences he owned, in Los Angeles and Miami. They seized a thousand bottles of lubricant and “evidence of “maddened”” – nickname for sexual orgies that are the subject of federal investigation, including numerous cameras.

In May, CNN published a sequence filmed by a security camera in 2016. Sean Combs, wrapped in a bath towel, throws his then-partner, Cassandra Ventura, known as Cassie, to the ground and hits her several times. In a video, the music producer recognizes the facts, describes his behavior as“inexcusable”. Since then, the rapper’s defense has insisted on his desire to collaborate with justice and highlights that he returned to New York of his own free will to answer the justice’s questions.

Why does the issue have political resonance?

Over the years, Sean Combs has forged close ties to the American political and philanthropic spheres, particularly the Democrats. It is committed to education in disadvantaged neighborhoods by investing large sums of money in a network of semi-private secondary schools, the Capital Preparatory Schools. A collaboration that ended in 2023. Sean Combs also made a donation of one million dollars to Howard, a prestigious African-American university where he briefly studied business. The university made the decision, in June, to return this donation.

Concerned about the black cause, Sean Combs stood in favor of Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020. “White men like [Donald] Trump must be banned. [Sa] This way of thinking is dangerous.he later said on the “Revolt TV” podcast, announcing the launch of a party representing black Americans. Positions that make the Combs case used today by pro-Trump people to try to defame the Democratic field. In return, remember that the New York businessman spent a long time dating the rapper.