Sean “Diddy” Combs is sitting in a federal jail in New York, awaiting trial on sex trafficking and other charges in a racketeering case that alleges other, unnamed parties helped commit crimes, which are alleged to have taken place at the mogul’s sultry “freak off” parties.
Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams, who once handed Combs the figurative key to the city, is facing unrelated federal corruption charges across the East River.
Adams gave Combs, who rose to fame after founding Bad Boy Records in 1993, the golden opener around this time last year, proclaiming, “The bad boy of entertainment is getting the key to the city from the bad boy of politics.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs, left, receives the key to the city from Mayor Eric Adams in Times Square Sept. 15, 2023, in New York City. (Raymond Hall/GC Images)
No one else has been charged in Combs’ alleged sex trafficking operation. Aside from Adams, who the Justice Department accused of corruption and campaign finance crimes Thursday, no one else mentioned here is under federal indictment.
But court documents allege numerous people in Combs’ orbit, including close business associates, were aware of his activities. Some of the lawsuits against him have named names, including one alleging fellow entertainment industry leaders like former Bad Boy executive Harve Pierre.
Harve Pierre and Sean P. “Diddy” Combs during Sean P. “Diddy” Combs Hosts Bad Boy & Warner Bros. Music Partnership Party at Flow in New York City. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Still, it’s too early to say who might be in the crosshairs of federal investigators based on publicly available information, according to legal experts.
Russell Simmons, Steve Stoute, Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Andre Harrell. (Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Bad Boy Entertainment)
“Anyone who actually participated in sex acts with Diddy should be shaking in their boots,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who now runs a private practice in Los Angeles.
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Another lawsuit alleges Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of sexually harassing and groping a man at one of Combs’ parties aboard a yacht in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Sean “Diddy” Combs interviews Barack Obama, a U.S. Senate candidate and future president, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. The former president is not accused of any wrongdoing in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering case against Combs. (Rebecca Sapp/WireImage for Citizen Change)
Like Jeffrey Epstein, the sex trafficking financier who had his own private island, Combs, 54, has been accused of seducing victims with his luxurious lifestyle and – in some cases – assaulting them aboard a yacht he rented for trips to the USVI and Saint Barthélemy.
Rodney Jones, in his lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleges this photograph shows him with Cuba Gooding Jr. on a yacht Combs rented in which the actor allegedly made unwanted advances. (Southern District of New York Court)
DIDDY SEX TRAFFICKING PROBE: HOLLYWOOD STARS ARE ‘SCARED TO DEATH’ TO SPEAK OUT, EXPERTS SAY
(L-R) Prince William, Kanye West, Prince Harry and P Diddy pose for the media during a backstage party at Wembley Arena in north London July 1, 2007. (Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images)
Court documents allege he coerced victims into having sex with male prostitutes in events that were so rigorous, participants and victims alike received IV treatments afterward.
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Harvey Weinstein attend the 2008 CFDA Fashion Awards at the New York Public Library June 2, 2008, in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)
Combs has for years had ties to entertainment A-listers like Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z and Leonardo DiCaprio, political leaders including Adams and other Democratic leaders and business titans.
Actor Ashton Kutcher, Kim Porter, music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs and actor Leonardo DiCaprio attend the 2004 NBA All-Star Game at the Staples Center Feb. 15, 2004, in Los Angeles. Neither Kutcher nor DiCaprio have been accused of any wrongdoing in the recent federal indictment accusing Combs of trafficking women at drug-fueled sex parties. (Vince Bucci/Getty Images)
Federal prosecutors haven’t accused any of them of wrongdoing in their investigation into Combs. But the question remains, who was attending his “freak off” parties and who was participating in the abuse if it wasn’t just him?
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, a former Combs protégé who did a decade in prison for a 1999 nightclub shooting in which the mogul was acquitted, wound up deported after serving his sentence and became a politician in his home country.
Actor John Cusack, center, and entertainer P Diddy, at right in rear, join U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (behind Cusack) during the last night of the Democratic National Convention July, 29, 2004, in Boston. (Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)
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Barrow is now the opposition leader in the country’s House of Representatives. In a news briefing there recently, he alleged Combs threw him under the bus during the trial, the music website NME reported.
Although he claimed Combs “destroyed [his] life” after the shooting, he denied any knowledge of the infamous “freak off” parties where federal prosecutors say sex trafficking took place.
Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Puffy” Combs arrive for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards Sept. 7, 2000, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Lopez was once arrested in a New York City nightclub shooting involving Combs, but the case against her was dropped. She is not accused of any wrongdoing in the recent federal sex trafficking case against her ex. (George De Sota/Newsmakers vis Getty Images)
“He escaped a lot because of who he was,” Derrick Parker, a former member of the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit who investigated the 1999 nightclub shooting, previously told Fox News Digital.. “Now, a lot of stuff is just coming back to him.”
Sean P Diddy Combs and LL Cool J during the 6th annual P Diddy White Party at Star Room in Bridgehampton, N.Y. LL Cool J is not accused of wrongdoing in connection with the recent arrest of Combs. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
That investigation also led to the arrest of Combs’ girlfriend at the time, pop megastar Jennifer Lopez.
Prosecutors declined to charge her, and she was released.
R. Kelly, a former singer turned convicted sex trafficker, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, now an accused sex trafficker, are pictured at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in a file photo. (Theo Wargo/WireImage/File)
“Other members of the RICO conspiracy are criminally liable for the sex trafficking even if they didn’t actually participate in the sex acts,” said Rahmani, the former federal prosecutor. “So, someone who bought the thousand bottles of baby oil or who gave the victims post-drug IVs could be charged as a co-conspirator.”
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Prosecutors can pressure unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators to turn against Combs or anyone else involved in the alleged crimes, he said. And if they don’t flip, they can face charges themselves.
For the current charges, Combs faces up to life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
