Downfall

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Speaker 2 This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Please take care when listening.

Speaker 2 Toward the end of March 2024, Sean Diddy Combs was at an airport in Miami, Florida.

Speaker 2 He was getting ready to board his love heir private jet for a spring break trip to the Caribbean with his 17-year-old twin girls.

Speaker 2 What he likely didn't know was that federal law enforcement agents were getting ready to execute parallel searches on his homes in Miami Beach and Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 In Miami, news footage shows a big police van tucked under a row of palm trees. In LA, homeland security officers rolled in with armored vehicles, military rifles, bulletproof vests, and drones.

Speaker 8 It's all happening right there behind me. Now, the searches are being carried out at Diddy's properties as part of a federal investigation into human trafficking.

Speaker 2 And all of this is a federal investigation investigation into human trafficking.

Speaker 2 In the months leading up to this raid, Diddy had been hit with a bunch of bombshell civil lawsuits, including ones alleging rape and sex trafficking, all of which he's denied.

Speaker 2 But this was the day the public found out that the feds were looking into Diddy.

Speaker 2 Civil lawsuits can lead to financial penalties, but criminal charges can lead to prison time. So this was a big escalation.

Speaker 8 And again, you can see a lot of activity here, a lot of law enforcement. Again, Homeland Security out of New York is handling this and they're being assisted by Homeland Security here in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 And also the feds, they weren't looking to arrest Diddy. Not yet.
First, they were looking for evidence.

Speaker 8 Now, all they're saying is that the investigation has been ongoing for several months.

Speaker 8 Right now, they're not saying anything about any arrests or imminent, so we're waiting for them to give us more information.

Speaker 2 Remember, Diddy wasn't home at the time of the raids. TMZ caught him on video pacing outside a Miami airport in blue sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

Speaker 2 Back in LA, agents swarmed past a white Range Rover in the driveway, guns drawn. One agent turned a security camera away as he passed, blocking its view of the raid.

Speaker 2 After the initial intensity, the raid seemed to downshift to a calmer, slower search.

Speaker 2 In media footage, you can see agents strolling through French doors, past low manicured bushes, and a sculpture of a headless woman.

Speaker 2 Two agents in blue rubber gloves carried a white cooler through the Miami yard. Others loaded a big cardboard box into a van.

Speaker 2 By watching the footage, we can't see much of what they're up to inside the homes. But I can tell you, a raid by the feds is never a pleasant experience.

Speaker 2 As a criminal defense attorney, I've represented clients who have been targets of these kinds of raids. We're talking beds flipped over, mattresses cut open.

Speaker 2 Law enforcement isn't handling people's stuff gently.

Speaker 2 It's also standard procedure for people at the scene to be detained.

Speaker 9 Agents descending on his Homeby Hills mansion in fatigues, briefly detaining two of Comb's adult sons seen here wearing handcuffs.

Speaker 2 The whole point of a coordinated surprise search like this is to find corroborating evidence of alleged crimes and to make sure evidence isn't moved, tampered with, or destroyed before law enforcement can get to it.

Speaker 10 Law enforcement sources told ABC News they found guns in both locations and seized multiple electronic devices as federal prosecutors in New York work to corroborate allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking from several of Diddy's accusers.

Speaker 2 When I heard law enforcement seized electronic devices from Diddy's homes, I immediately thought back to the lawsuits.

Speaker 2 How Cassie, Rodney Jones, and others alleged Diddy had recorded their sexual encounters.

Speaker 2 And when I heard they'd seized guns, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, I thought about how Rodney Jones alleged Diddy kept and displayed guns in his bedroom closet.

Speaker 2 Again, I wondered whether these lawsuits had given law enforcement a roadmap to find what they were looking for. And I wasn't the only one glued to the coverage of the raids of Diddy's homes.

Speaker 2 People couldn't look away. Here's DJ and ABC News contributor Megan Wright.

Speaker 11 The headlines hit, people are looking up the articles. I'm like, I remember being out and about and seeing people on their phones actually looking up and reading like in real time what was going on.

Speaker 11 You've got pictures and video footage of his sons outside and in handcuffs, and everyone is trying to figure out like what is going on.

Speaker 2 For decades, Diddy had brushes with the law, but this didn't stop him from living large and flying around the world in his private jet.

Speaker 2 The way he dressed, the way he traveled, the way he partied, few could compare.

Speaker 2 But this day, back in March of 2024, was a turning point. The walls were closing in.

Speaker 2 The raid by federal agents spilled Diddy's criminal investigation into public view for the first time. And soon, what started as a trickle of allegations swelled into a tsunami no one could ignore.

Speaker 2 I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an attorney and ABC News legal contributor. From ABC Audio, this is Bad Rap, the case against Diddy.

Speaker 2 Episode 5, Downfall.

Speaker 2 The day after his homes were raided, Diddy and his legal team fired back.

Speaker 12 Sean Diddy Combs denying all the allegations against him, his attorney calling the raids at his home here in Los Angeles and in Miami an unprecedented ambush and a gross overuse of military-level force.

Speaker 2 Diddy's attorney released a statement saying Diddy was innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.

Speaker 2 But Diddy and his team are up against one of the toughest U.S. attorneys' offices in the country, the Southern District of New York, or SDNY.

Speaker 2 This office has a ridiculously high conviction rate, like around 90 to 95%.

Speaker 2 Chances are you've heard about the SDNY in the news. They prosecute some of the country's highest profile cases.
Think cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

Speaker 2 And let's not forget Gheelane Maxwell. She was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

Speaker 2 And now, the SDNY is after Diddy.

Speaker 2 Two months after the SDNY executed the raids on Diddy's homes, Diddy's world world was rocked again.

Speaker 13 We begin this hour with disturbing video. It's truly disturbing when you see it.

Speaker 13 This is exclusively obtained by CNN, and it really seems to support at least some of the abuse claims against Sean Diddy Combs.

Speaker 15 It's graphic surveillance footage that appears to show Combs repeatedly hitting his then-girlfriend Cassie inside of a hotel.

Speaker 15 This is back in 2016, and we do want to warn you, what you're about to see is very disturbing.

Speaker 2 The surveillance footage is from eight years earlier, back when Diddy and Cassie were still together. They were staying at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 The video CNN published includes a handful of short clips. There's no sound.

Speaker 2 Here's what you see. Cassie Ventura walks down a hotel hallway barefoot.
She wears an oversized hoodie and carries a large purse.

Speaker 2 In another shot, you see Diddy running down the hallway, shirtless, a towel wrapped around his waist. He runs up to Cassie as she bends to put her shoes on by the elevator.

Speaker 2 Diddy grabs her by the back of the head and throws her to the ground. He kicks her in the back and she just

Speaker 2 lies there, doesn't try to get up. He kicks her again, then starts to drag her back down the hall by her sleeve.
In another shot, he appears to throw a vase at her.

Speaker 3 The first time that I heard about the incident that is portrayed in this video was from Cassie's lawsuit.

Speaker 2 Elizabeth Wagmeister is an entertainment reporter for CNN. She's the one who broke the story about this video.

Speaker 2 Cassie's 2023 lawsuit includes a pretty detailed account of this very incident.

Speaker 2 She claims Diddy punched her in the eye during one of those freak offs and that after he fell asleep, she tried to escape.

Speaker 2 The suit mentions how Diddy woke up and followed her into the hall of this very hotel. She alleged he dragged her and threw glass vases that crashed around her.

Speaker 2 Cassie also alleged Diddy paid the hotel $50,000 for the surveillance video.

Speaker 3 Part of the reason why our reporting was so significant, because

Speaker 3 it did appear to corroborate some very disturbing allegations.

Speaker 3 Now, of course, her lawsuit was pages and pages, and this was far from the only incident, but for this incident, it corroborated not just a generality.

Speaker 3 It corroborated every single detail of what she said about that 2016 incident, which therefore gave Cassie credibility and took away from Diddy's credibility because he had denied everything prior to that.

Speaker 2 When Cassie's lawsuit came out in 2023, Diddy's attorney issued a statement saying Cassie's allegations were baseless and that her suit was, quote, riddled with outrageous lies aiming to tarnish Mr.

Speaker 2 Combs' reputation and seeking a payday.

Speaker 2 And Diddy's attorneys have since alleged that CNN altered the video.

Speaker 2 They called it a misleading piece of evidence, alleging the footage was sped up and reordered and that CNN destroyed the original recording.

Speaker 2 A spokesperson for CNN denied these allegations, saying the network never altered the video and that their source kept the original footage.

Speaker 2 When Cassie and Diddy reached a settlement, Diddy's lawyer was quick to point out Diddy's innocence.

Speaker 2 Just so we're clear, his lawyer said in a statement, a decision to settle a lawsuit is in no way an omission of wrongdoing. And Diddy's lawyers didn't just deny Cassie's claims.

Speaker 2 They also refuted other allegations that started rolling in after Cassie came forward.

Speaker 2 By the time CNN published their story in May of 2024, there were a handful of active civil lawsuits on the books against Diddy, several alleging sex trafficking and sexual abuse.

Speaker 3 Then, in comes our reporting months later, and

Speaker 3 whoops,

Speaker 3 guess there wasn't a full denial.

Speaker 2 Within a couple of days, Diddy posted his own video to Instagram.

Speaker 16 I made no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable.

Speaker 16 I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.

Speaker 2 I'm disgusted.

Speaker 16 I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now.

Speaker 2 In the video, Diddy looks a little haggard, dressed down in a plain beige t-shirt. No logos, no flashy jewelry.
He appears to be somewhere tropical on a balcony with a tidy thatched roof.

Speaker 16 I mean, I hit rock bottom,

Speaker 16 but I'm committed to be a better man each and every day.

Speaker 2 He follows a typical apology video script.

Speaker 2 He says that he's been to therapy and to rehab, and that he's been asking God for mercy.

Speaker 16 I'm not asking for forgiveness.

Speaker 16 I'm truly sorry.

Speaker 2 But then,

Speaker 2 it ends.

Speaker 2 What's missing from this apology video? An actual apology? Or any mention of Cassie? People definitely took notice.

Speaker 2 Here's how the hosts of ABC's The View reacted.

Speaker 17 Does his confession change anything?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 6 it wasn't a confession, it was an apology.

Speaker 18 The apology was lacking as he didn't even name Cassie. There was no message to young men.
There was no saying he's going to donate his millions to a domestic violence shelter.

Speaker 18 And an entire community stood by knowing this about this man, continuing to support him as long as it was financially and socially beneficial. Abusers don't act alone.

Speaker 18 There are other folks who need to be held accountable who knew this was happening and didn't say it.

Speaker 2 It's one thing to read a lawsuit like Cassie's that alleges abuse. It's another to see video footage that appears to corroborate those allegations.

Speaker 2 I'd argue the surveillance video was actually far more damning to Diddy than Cassie's lawsuit was, or any lawsuit for that matter.

Speaker 2 The video tarnished Diddy's image, an image he had kept such a tight hold on for decades.

Speaker 2 When I saw Diddy's video on Instagram, I had a lot of questions. As an attorney, I generally advise my clients to let their lawyer do the talking for them.

Speaker 2 So, Diddy putting out this video, it made me wonder, had this been part of an improved strategy or was it something more spontaneous? Here's CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister.

Speaker 3 With my journalist hat on, I knew exactly why he wasn't saying her name because of that settlement agreement. Within that settlement agreement, they are not allowed to talk about each other.

Speaker 3 So that is the reason why he didn't say her name. I have actually confirmed that with sources because so many people were asking.

Speaker 2 So according to Wagmeister, Diddy couldn't deliver a full apology for legal reasons, which leaves him with a few options.

Speaker 2 Stay silent, deliver what some considered a weak apology, or break the terms of the settlement agreement and risk the consequences.

Speaker 3 If you are Sean Combs, you know that you are fighting a battle in court, but you're also fighting a battle in the court of public opinion.

Speaker 3 Your entire career is based off the court of public opinion because you can't sell tickets to a movie, you can't sell albums, you can't sell a tour if you don't have your fans.

Speaker 3 So look, let's be honest, I don't know if there was much he could have said in that video that would have helped him, but I don't think it would have been a bad thing if he mentioned her name with a more sincere approach.

Speaker 20 That video will follow him for the rest of his life.

Speaker 2 Author Justin Tinsley writes about black culture on ESPN's Andscape. And by that video, he's referring to the surveillance footage of Diddy attacking Cassie, the one that CNN published.

Speaker 20 That is a video you don't recover from.

Speaker 20 Regardless of whatever money you want to donate, whatever charities you want to align yourself with, or whatever music you want to create, people will always remember that video. And that video...

Speaker 20 is just as important, if not more, than any hit record he has ever created because he denied those allegations.

Speaker 20 So all these other lawsuits that are levied against him, yes, there are some wild claims in those lawsuits, but now he doesn't have the benefit of the doubt anymore, if he ever did to begin with, but he definitely doesn't now.

Speaker 2 After the fallout from the CNN story and his Instagram apology, did he appear to shrink away from public life?

Speaker 2 In May, he was reportedly MIA from his eldest daughter's high school graduation.

Speaker 2 In June, Revolt, the media company Diddy had started in 2013, announced he'd sold his majority stake and was no longer involved with the company. Then, he deleted all of his Instagram posts.

Speaker 2 For someone who had spent years posting videos of himself living his best life on social media, Diddy's digital silence was noticeable.

Speaker 2 Even Even though Diddy was laying low, he was still very much on other people's radars, including the media's.

Speaker 2 In May of 2024, Rolling Stone published an investigation into Diddy and his alleged history of violence.

Speaker 2 The story included allegations of physical abuse going back to the late 1980s when Diddy was a college student at Howard. This was years before he started Bad Boy Records.

Speaker 2 Soon, Diddy faced crushing blowback. He was like a distressed asset.
Organizations and brands that once celebrated him and wanted to be associated with him were now publicly distancing themselves.

Speaker 2 Howard University under mounting pressure to cut ties with former student and rapper Sean Diddy Combs.

Speaker 2 The star is facing multiple rape allegations, along with disturbing video surfacing and shows him beating his girlfriend.

Speaker 2 And this week, a new article claims Diddy assaulted another ex while a student at the HBCU.

Speaker 2 This reporting is from local TV outlet DC News Now.

Speaker 2 Nearly two weeks later, Howard University announced it was revoking his honorary degree, returning his million-dollar donation and canceling a scholarship that had been set up in his name.

Speaker 2 Then, the mayor of New York asked Diddy to return his key to the city. Even the Miami Beach Commission joined the pylon by canceling its annual Sean Diddy Combs Day, as reported by NBC6 South Florida.

Speaker 17 The Mayor and City Commission determined last week the day is no longer in harmony with the city's values of quote safety, community well-being, and respect.

Speaker 17 City leaders made the decision after video surfaced that allegedly showed Combs attack singer and ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura.

Speaker 2 This all happened in less than a month. And those forces that were turning against Diddy?

Speaker 2 Well, that pileup was growing bigger and more powerful. Because now the feds were getting closer to an arrest.
That's after the break.

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Speaker 2 In September of 2024, Diddy returned to the place where his life and career began: New York City.

Speaker 2 He was spotted around town, posing for photos with his children in Harlem.

Speaker 2 Diddy looked casual in Tim's in a black t-shirt. The t-shirt looked simple enough, but it appeared to be a designer vintage item that can retail for over $1,000.

Speaker 2 While Diddy may have appeared relaxed, this wasn't a family getaway or even a business trip. Here's ABC chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky.

Speaker 21 Sean Combs knew he was going to be arrested, his attorney said, and decided to come to New York two weeks in advance.

Speaker 21 According to his lawyer, Sean Combs knew that the raids on his home scared his kids, and he said he didn't want anything else to be so scary.

Speaker 21 And that's why he decided to relocate to New York so that everybody would know where he was to make the arrest easy.

Speaker 2 His lawyer said he planned to turn himself in, but the feds didn't wait for that to happen. Instead, on September 16th, 2024, they made a surprise move in a hotel lobby in Midtown Manhattan.

Speaker 2 Here's Aaron Katersky on ABC News again.

Speaker 25 Watch how federal agents took Sean Diddy Combs into custody.

Speaker 25 He's seen in this video entering the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan with others when agents from Homeland Security Investigations approach and separate him.

Speaker 25 They place Combs under arrest and lead him out the front door in handcuffs. His lawyer said Combs had come to New York two weeks earlier with the intention of turning himself in.

Speaker 25 He did not expect the agents to be waiting at his hotel last Monday night.

Speaker 2 The next day, federal prosecutors held a press conference.

Speaker 4 Morning, everyone. My name is Damian Williams, and I'm the U.S.
Attorney here in the Southern District of New York.

Speaker 2 Standing at a podium, flanked by two American flags, then U.S. Attorney Damian Williams looked serious, formal.
He wore tortoiseshell glasses, a dark suit, and a navy maroon tie with gold stripes.

Speaker 4 Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution.

Speaker 2 Williams has the cred the SDNY is known for. He's an alum of Harvard, also Yale Law School.
He was the first black person to lead the SDNY.

Speaker 2 If Diddy went around pronouncing how he represented Black excellence, Damian Williams' presence and accomplishments were the embodiment of that excellence.

Speaker 4 The indictment alleges that between at least 2008 and the present, Combs abused, threatened, and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.

Speaker 2 There are three counts against Diddy laid out in order of severity.

Speaker 2 The first count is Racketeering Conspiracy, or RICO. That's the the most serious count, because it carries a maximum sentence of up to life in prison.

Speaker 2 This count alleges that Diddy ran a criminal enterprise that exploited and abused women. The freak-offs were allegedly a manifestation of that abuse.

Speaker 2 The indictment says Diddy's criminal enterprise engaged in crimes like arson, bribery, forced labor, and obstruction of justice, just to name a few.

Speaker 4 He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.

Speaker 4 The indictment alleges that those individuals facilitated the freak offs.

Speaker 4 They booked the hotel rooms and stocked them with the supplies, including drugs, baby oil, personal lubricant, extra linens, and lighting. When the hotel rooms got damaged, they helped clean it up.

Speaker 4 They arranged for victims and commercial sex workers to travel for the freak offs, and they delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.

Speaker 2 The other charges? Two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. They also come with stiff prison sentences.

Speaker 2 Sex trafficking might catch some people off guard. We'll get more into this in a later episode.
But for now, here's what the SDNY is alleging.

Speaker 2 Did he use force, fraud, or coercion to compel his victims to participate in sexual acts against their will.

Speaker 2 It's a federal crime because Diddy's alleged victims were moved across state lines for those freak-offs.

Speaker 2 If the sex trafficking had only happened in, say, California, with people who were already in the state and weren't compelled to travel, well, then it'd likely be a state issue, not a federal one.

Speaker 2 As former U.S.

Speaker 2 Attorney Damian Williams explained the finer finer points of the indictment, he mentioned some of the corroborating evidence law enforcement allegedly found during those home raids six months earlier.

Speaker 4 They seized firearms and ammunition, including three defaced AR-15s and a large-capacity drum magazine. They also seized evidence of the freak-offs.

Speaker 4 electronic devices that contain images and videos of the freak offs with multiple victims.

Speaker 4 And they seize cases and cases of the kinds of personal lubricant and baby oil that Combs' staff allegedly used to stock hotel rooms for the freak offs. More than 1,000 bottles altogether.

Speaker 11 I don't think people were in the least bit shocked that they found guns. I don't think they were shocked that they found substances that they believed to be drugs.

Speaker 26 Like none of that was shocking.

Speaker 2 DJ and cultural commentator Megan Wright.

Speaker 11 What took social media by storm was the 1,000 bottles of baby oil. Diddy's lawyer then says that the baby oil came from Costco and then Costco makes a statement and says, we don't sell baby oil.

Speaker 11 It's like, Costco is like, keep me out of this.

Speaker 2 Industrial quantities of baby oil aside, we're going to learn a lot more about all of the alleged evidence once Diddy's trial starts. That's scheduled to happen in May.

Speaker 2 Again, Diddy has been unwavering in denying all of these allegations, and he's entered a plea of not guilty. Here's his lawyer, Mark Ignifilo, speaking to reporters.

Speaker 27 He has been ready to defend this case since he first found out about this case. Nothing has changed from his perspective.
He believes he's innocent. I believe he's innocent.

Speaker 27 And we're going to fight this case with all of our might until we don't have to fight any longer.

Speaker 2 After the federal indictment, the number of civil lawsuits really picked up. You might ask, what one has to do with the other? Criminal indictment versus civil lawsuits.

Speaker 2 Well, in my experience, when the feds get involved, victims are more willing to come forward. Think about it.
When you know the feds are going after someone, then you might say, okay,

Speaker 2 this person could get locked up. You might be able to get witness protection or even volunteer yourself to the feds as a witness.
There's also strength and safety in numbers.

Speaker 19 After the indictment of Sean Combs, the floodgates opened.

Speaker 2 In early October 2024, a trial lawyer out of Houston named Tony Busby held his own press conference. Busby stood in front of a podium in a dark suit and pink tie.
His brown hair was slicked back.

Speaker 2 Behind him, a sign read sexual assault hotline in all caps. Below it, a 1-800 number in bright red font.
Apparently, a lot of people have called this number.

Speaker 2 ABC reached out to the company tracking the calls. In April 2025, they told us they'd been contacted about 26,000 times.

Speaker 19 If you wonder why there are so many alleged victims, we're talking about more than 25 years of this type of conduct. And I expect more victims will come forward.

Speaker 19 You know, it's an old saying, a lie has great speed, but truth has endurance.

Speaker 2 Busby reportedly filed nearly 40 civil lawsuits against Combs before he had to remove himself from the federal cases last month.

Speaker 2 That's because he's not admitted to practice in the Southern District of New York.

Speaker 2 But more than a dozen of his lawsuits are still moving forward without him, and Busby is still active on a couple lawsuits filed in New York state court.

Speaker 2 Busby told reporters these lawsuits have some common denominators. For example, a lot of the alleged incidents happened at parties.

Speaker 19 Typically, after parties are album release parties, New Year's Eve parties, Fourth of July parties, something they call a puppy party, the all-white party.

Speaker 2 Second, most of the victims say they were drugged.

Speaker 19 Typically the victim is lured into a situation where he or she is given a drink. Typically that drink reported by these victims is apparently laced with something.

Speaker 19 And if you refuse to drink it, you were kicked out of the party.

Speaker 19 Let that sink in for a minute. I mean, the admission to this party was that you had to drink the chosen drink that was handed to you.

Speaker 19 And now we know that these individuals were drugged with some sort of drug.

Speaker 2 Third, some victims alleged they were threatened, including threats of physical violence or threats of financial consequences for speaking out.

Speaker 2 Busby promised the day would come when he would name names of other powerful people who were allegedly involved. A couple months after his press conference, Busby did name a name, a big one, Jay-Z.

Speaker 2 He was listed as Diddy's co-defendant in an alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in 2000 after the MTV Video Music Awards.

Speaker 2 Jay-Z fired back on Instagram, where he described the allegations against him as frivolous, fictitious, and appalling.

Speaker 2 ABC obtained a recording of the Jane Doe who made those allegations, telling private investigators for Jay-Z that the rapper had been present, but not involved in the sexual assault.

Speaker 2 And she said that Tony Busby had pressured her to name Jay-Z in the suit, an allegation Busby has called a blatant lie.

Speaker 2 Despite the recording, the Jane Doe said in a sworn declaration, she stands by her initial claims and dropped her lawsuit because of fear of intimidation and retaliation from Jay-Z and his fans.

Speaker 2 But her lawsuit against both men has been withdrawn with prejudice, meaning it cannot be re-filed. Now, Jay-Z is counter-suing Busby and the Jane Doe for defamation.

Speaker 2 Still, as Diddy prepares for his federal criminal trial, he faces over 60 pending civil lawsuits.

Speaker 14 When one voice comes forward, people feel less afraid.

Speaker 2 Adriana Alcalde is a victim's rights attorney who specializes specializes in sex abuse cases. She represents a client who recently filed a civil lawsuit against Sean Combs.

Speaker 2 Her client is a John Doe, a former sex worker Diddy allegedly hired over a decade ago. This was back in 2012.

Speaker 2 He's decided to remain anonymous publicly, but Alcalde says Diddy's legal team knows his identity.

Speaker 14 I'll be honest with you, I don't think it's ever easy for people to come forward. These types of crimes, too, are so personal.

Speaker 14 And especially for men, it's kind of something that it has an extra layer.

Speaker 2 The John Doe victim Alcalde represents alleges he traveled from Florida to a hotel in New York City where Diddy instructed him to have sex with a woman. He described the sex acts as, quote, degrading.

Speaker 2 But the allegations in this John Doe's complaint mostly focus on what happened after the prearranged hotel sex. That's when Diddy allegedly cornered him in the bathroom and raped him.

Speaker 2 Diddy also allegedly threatened the John Doe with violence if he told anyone what happened. According to the complaint, John Doe alleges that Diddy told him, I'm not effing playing with you.

Speaker 14 If I can get Pac hit, what the F do you think can happen to you?

Speaker 2 Tupac Shakora was shot and killed in 1996. Diddy has always denied any involvement in his death.
And in fact, someone else is currently facing charges in connection to Tupac's murder.

Speaker 2 But according to John Doe's lawsuit, Diddy used Tupac's death to intimidate him.

Speaker 2 ABC reached out to Diddy's legal team for their response to these John Doe allegations, and they said, quote, these are just more examples of false claims being filed against Mr. Combs.

Speaker 2 No matter how many lawsuits are filed, especially by individuals who refuse to put their own names behind their claims, it won't change the fact that Mr.

Speaker 2 Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone, man or woman, adult or minor. Mr.
Combs remains confident he will prevail in court.

Speaker 2 Alcalde said her client is still somewhat fearful of what could happen to him. And that's one of the reasons why he decided to file his lawsuit anonymously.

Speaker 14 For men, it's emasculating. Men are basically always taught to think like, oh, I'm strong.
And if this happens to me, this is how I would handle it.

Speaker 14 And when you don't, or when you're helpless, or when something like this happens to you, it's traumatic for anyone that this happens to, but for men, it's that extra layer of, I don't even want to talk about it with anyone.

Speaker 2 Alcalde points out there's this other layer of stigma for her client because he's a former sex worker.

Speaker 2 Sex workers, she says, are more vulnerable to these kinds of alleged crimes and they're less likely to be believed when they do come forward.

Speaker 2 In Alcalde's experience, there's a fundamental motivation driving the kinds of sex crimes her client allegedly experienced.

Speaker 14 It's always about controlling someone.

Speaker 14 You know, they're not sexual in nature in the sense that the gratification doesn't, I don't think, and most of the experts agree, it doesn't come from the sex act.

Speaker 14 It comes from the subjugation, from the domination, from doing something that is unwanted. You know, it's a dominance thing.

Speaker 2 If you connect the dots across all the allegations swirling around Diddy, unchecked power is a common thread.

Speaker 6 What's really shocking to me when you read all of the lawsuits that have been filed against Sean Combs is how brazen he was, how open he was, how he just has such a lack of concern about other people.

Speaker 2 Lisa Bloom is an attorney representing another alleged victim, a singer named Don Richard.

Speaker 2 In the 2000s, Richard was in a group called Danny Kane, as well as Diddy Dirty Money.

Speaker 2 She first came into Diddy's orbit through the MTV reality show Making the Band.

Speaker 2 In the fall of 2024, Richard filed a civil lawsuit against Diddy, which was amended in March of 2025. She alleges sexual assault and intimidation.

Speaker 2 She describes him in her lawsuit as having a, quote, vicious temper and alleges she witnessed him beating his then-girlfriend Cassie, including striking, choking, choking, and strangling her.

Speaker 2 Attorneys for Combs said Richard had, quote, manufactured a series of false claims, all in the hopes of trying to get a payday, and they're expected to file a motion to dismiss her suit by mid-May.

Speaker 2 Attorney Lisa Bloom wouldn't comment on the specific allegations in Richard's suit, but she did tell ABC News about some of the larger forces she sees at play in this case.

Speaker 6 I have been doing sexual abuse cases for almost 40 years as an attorney representing victims.

Speaker 6 And I can tell you that the music industry is, in my opinion, the number one worst industry for women when it comes to sexual abuse. The Me Too movement largely bypassed the music industry.

Speaker 6 There are a few examples like R. Kelly, but not a lot.
And in general, in the music industry, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of women is tolerated. A lot of very high-level people are complicit.

Speaker 6 Women suffer. Women are overly sexualized.
They're discarded like trash after they complain. And a reckoning is long overdue.

Speaker 2 ABC Entertainment contributor Kelly Carter agrees. She says the allegations against Diddy amount to something much bigger than the actions of one powerful mogul.

Speaker 26 The culture of silence was... Colossal.

Speaker 26 You know, it really protected Sean for a number of years, whether that be because people were afraid they would lose whatever positioning they were working to get in the industry, or afraid for what might have been on a videotape, or afraid for something else.

Speaker 26 It kept people silent for a really long time.

Speaker 26 And I would venture to say it still is keeping people silent right now.

Speaker 2 After the break, we tackle complicated questions about Diddy's legacy and how one woman who helped promote him early on now feels about her role role in his rise.

Speaker 2 Give it up for Chicago. Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 2 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd, Bezos now, ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep

Speaker 19 coming.

Speaker 2 Watch Sebastian Maniscalco, It ain't right. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.
Terms apply.

Speaker 2 Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

Speaker 2 Oh my god, are you kidding me? This is gonna be a war.

Speaker 28 Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPN app.

Speaker 29 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 23 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 29 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker. He's fallen asleep.

Speaker 29 So she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 17 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without waking him and I'm scared.

Speaker 29 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 2 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 4 The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 29 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020: The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 30 If I ever see him, I'd say this, why couldn't you just act right?

Speaker 30 Why couldn't you just act right?

Speaker 2 In the mid-1990s, La Joyce Brookshire oversaw PR for Arista Records, which was then Bad Boy's parent label.

Speaker 2 These days, she teaches at City College, and she's the author of the book, Women Behind the Mic, Curators of Pop Culture.

Speaker 2 Back in the day, she and Diddy worked hand in hand to promote bad boy artists, including Diddy, or Puffy as he was known then.

Speaker 2 If I was to ask you to finish this sentence, how would you finish it?

Speaker 2 Sean Puffy Combs' legacy is.

Speaker 30 Sean Puffy Combs' legacy is

Speaker 2 finished.

Speaker 2 Combs's legacy might not be the really important thing here, especially compared to the harm his alleged victim suffered. But the fallout from the allegations against him have had ripple effects.

Speaker 2 LaJoyce Brookshire says she used to think of Puffy as a creative genius. She used to be proud of the work she did with him whenever she caught a glimpse of him performing or getting an award.

Speaker 30 Wow, we did that.

Speaker 30 We did that. We laid foundation brick upon brick upon brick

Speaker 30 to establish that a Sean Puffy Combs is cared about as a leader in pop culture today.

Speaker 2 She reminded me of how back in the day, people thought hip-hop was just a passing fad, nothing bankable or worthy. Decades later, the music, the culture, it's still a phenomenon.

Speaker 2 She was part of building that foundation, along with so many other people.

Speaker 2 She says this is the legacy that's been tarnished.

Speaker 30 You had an opportunity to be the greatest producer and leave a legacy

Speaker 30 of great music of all time.

Speaker 30 And now, anytime we hear that music, we're going to think about these things.

Speaker 30 When I started to hear all of these allegations and all of the trouble that has ensued, I felt like it's a shovel of dirt being being thrown in my face.

Speaker 30 That dirt is just sullying the work that I've put in, my sweat equity.

Speaker 30 And some gold plaques on the wall is not enough for what was physically sacrificed because you didn't get there by yourself.

Speaker 30 People made real sacrifices to do that work, to establish this foundation and build that house for you to solidly stand and for there to be no care and to operate under the auspices of I could do whatever I want to and not get caught.

Speaker 2 Oh, one day.

Speaker 30 It may not be today, but one day and the day has come.

Speaker 2 We started this series with a portrait of Sean Cohns as the ultimate host. He staged elaborate, over-the-top parties everyone wanted to go to.

Speaker 2 He was the hit hitmaker, the kingmaker that everyone wanted to be near.

Speaker 2 Back in early November, Diddy celebrated his 55th birthday with a very different kind of party. This was not a lavish, star-studded affair.
Diddy was on a speakerphone from jail.

Speaker 2 His kids gathered to sing him happy birthday, including his youngest, a two-year-old named Love.

Speaker 2 Happy birthday, Joe Daddy.

Speaker 2 I just want to say I'm proud of y'all,

Speaker 2 As he gave this speech, the toddler, Love, smashed her face into the cake and started licking the frosting.

Speaker 2 This moment has been memorialized on Diddy's Instagram. It's just one of a handful of posts you can still find in his feed.
His kids reposted it too.

Speaker 2 The comments are a mix of free Diddy and send him to jail for life.

Speaker 2 The Bare Bones Party has all the trappings of a staged moment, at least according to prosecutors.

Speaker 2 In court documents arguing against bail, they allege this video is actually part of a campaign Diddy planned around his birthday to influence potential jurors.

Speaker 2 and that Diddy monitored how this post was performing on social media from jail.

Speaker 2 However you interpret this video, whether you see it as simply a small family gathering or a carefully curated PR stunt, there's no denying how different Diddy's reality is today from the freedom, luxury, and power that defined him for so long.

Speaker 2 This is how it will be until his trial, until a jury decides to send him to prison or set him free.

Speaker 2 Next time on Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, we'll game out strategies the prosecution and defense might use at Diddy's upcoming trial with a reporter who's been covering this case from the beginning.

Speaker 21 The first time I saw Sean Combs enter court after he was charged, I remember doing a little bit of a double take.

Speaker 2 Sean Combs sitting right there. I mean, he looked right at me.
That's next time on Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy.

Speaker 2 If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-HOPE

Speaker 2 or go to rainn.org.

Speaker 2 If you like this podcast, please share it and give it a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, is a production of ABC Audio. I'm Brian Buckmeyer.
This podcast was written and produced by Nancy Rosenbaum, Vika Aronson, and Camille Peterson.

Speaker 2 Tracy Samuelson is our story editor. Associate Producer, Amira Williams.
Production help from Shane McKeon and Meg Fiero. Fact checker, Audrey Mosttec.

Speaker 2 Story Consultant, Sweeney Saint-Fiddle.

Speaker 2 Supervising Producer, Sasha Aslanian.

Speaker 2 Original music by Evan Viola. Mixing by Rick Kwan.
Ariel Chester is our social media producer.

Speaker 2 This podcast was powered by the journalists at Impact by Nightline, 2020, GMA, and the ABC News Investigative Unit. Thanks to those teams.

Speaker 2 And special thanks to Stephanie Maurice, Liz Alesi, and Katie Dendas.

Speaker 2 Josh Cohan is ABC Audio's Director of Podcast Programming. Laura Mayer is the Executive Producer.

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