File Photo by: zz/ESBP/STAR MAX/IPx 2017 5/1/17 Sean P. Diddy Combs at the 2017 Costume Institute Benefit Gala celebrating the opening of the exhibition “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between” held on May 1, 2017 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (NYC)
Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is currently behind bars after being charged with federal crimes relating to an alleged yearslong sex trafficking scheme, may soon be facing a slew of lawsuits brought by more than 100 people who say he assaulted them.
Attorney Tony Buzbee announced on Tuesday his plans to bring lawsuits on behalf of 120 alleged victims of the rap titan. According to Buzbee, he and his clients — who at this point are remaining anonymous — are bringing to the forefront what has long lurked in the shadows.
“The biggest secret in the entertainment industry, that really wasn’t a secret at all, has finally been revealed to the world,” Buzbee said. “The wall of silence has now been broken.”
Buzbee, who is no stranger to high-profile cases, said that many of the people implicated in Combs’ alleged actions are popular, well-known names, and suggested that they may have an idea of what’s coming.
“These people know who they are, and they should just come forward now,” Buzbee said. “You can’t hide skeletons in the closet forever.”
Buzbee added that people are “desperately searching their memories as they are deleting their texts and data.”
The cases will be brought in a range of jurisdictions, including California and New York, where Combs is currently being held by federal authorities, Buzbee said.
Some 25 of the 120 victims were minors, including a 9-year-old who says he encountered Combs at an audition in New York where he was trying to land a record deal, according to the attorney.
“This individual was sexually abused, allegedly by Sean Combs and several other people, at the studio in the promise to both his parents and him himself of getting a record deal,” Buzbee said at Tuesday’s press conference.
Another minor, Buzbee said, was allegedly told by Combs that he would make him a star, but “needed to visit with him in private about it, away from his parents.” Once Combs was secluded with this minor, he allegedly forced the victim to perform oral sex, Buzbee said.
One 15-year-old victim was allegedly flown to New York to attend a party, where she was drugged and then taken into a “private room, allegedly in the presence of Mr. Combs,” where she was raped by multiple people.
Buzbee also relayed multiple examples of people who said they were given a drink while in Combs’ presence and didn’t remember anything until they woke up hours later. One client claims she was assaulted after attending a group dinner with Combs in Miami.
“She wasn’t drinking because she was pregnant,” Buzbee noted, but the drink she did take from the table “was laced with something.” She allegedly woke up later “in the same bed” with Combs in his Miami mansion, with pain and damage to her genitals.
Another alleged victim, who was 26 years old at the time, was picked up by Combs at the airport, given one drink while riding in his SUV, and then “literally woke up the next day without knowing what happened to her,” Buzbee said. Her underwear and shoes were missing and she had suffered damage to her genitals.
In another instance, a 20-year-old was spotted on the street and was asked to attend a Combs party in a hotel. Flattered, she went, and was given one drink — and remembered nothing after that.
“She ultimately was so messed up, she went to the hospital, where they found cocaine and horse tranquilizer in her system,” Buzbee said.
“I could go on … you’re sensing a theme here,” Buzbee later added.
The attorney said that victims were often threatened with physical harm and financial ruin if they spoke out.
Buzbee’s claims on behalf of his clients will include violent sexual assault, rape, sexual abuse, false imprisonment, dissemination of sexual recordings and sexual abuse of minors. He said he expects to start filing cases against Combs “and other perpetrators” within the next 30 days.
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