By ANDREW DALTON, MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK— Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested late Monday in New York, where he faces a sealed criminal complaint, prosecutors announced late Monday.
Details of the allegations were not immediately released by prosecutors, but the hip-hop mogul has faced a barrage of accusations in recent months from women accusing him of sexual assault.
U.S. Attorney in Manhattan Damian Williams said in a statement that federal agents have arrested Combs. “We expect to unseat the indictment tomorrow morning and will have more to say at that time.”
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, issued a statement saying, “We are disappointed with the decision to proceed with what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the United States Attorney’s Office.”
He added that Combs had gone to New York last week to await charges.
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.
Combs was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby and is in federal custody, said a person familiar with the arrest who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The criminal charges are a major but not unexpected takedown of one of the most prominent producers and best-known names in hip-hop history.
The federal investigation into Combs, 58, came to light when Homeland Security Investigations agents served concurrently search warrants And raided the Combs mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.
His defense attorney Aaron Dyer the day after the raids, calling them “a gross use of force at a military level,” he said the charges were “meritless,” and said Combs was “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.
Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, was at the center of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s as partner and producer of the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997. After surviving the era, his public image had softened over the years to a genteel host of parties in Hollywood and the Hamptons, a fashion-conscious businessman and a doting father who spoiled his children, some of whom lost their mothers in 2018.
But a different picture emerged in November, when his former protégé and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassiebecame the first of several people he was indicted for sexual abuse with stories of a steady stream of sex workers in drug-fueled environments where some involved were coerced or coaxed into sex.
In her lawsuit in November, Cassie alleged years of abuse, including assault and rape. Her lawsuit also alleged that Combs engaged in sex trafficking by “requiring her to perform forcible sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and engaging in “harboring and transporting Plaintiff for the purpose of force-induced sex , fraud or coercion.”
It also said he forced her to help him traffic male sex workers. Combs would force Cassie to have sex while he filmed.
The lawsuit was settled arranged the next day, but the reverb would last much longer. Combs lost loyal allies, supporters and those who reserved judgment when CNN aired a leaked video of him in May hitting Cassie, kicked her and threw her to the ground in a hotel hallway.
The next day, in his first real admission of wrongdoing since the flurry of accusations began, Combs posted a video on social media apologizingsaying, “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s trial was followed by at least half a dozen others in the following months.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs forced him to recruit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the following rap producer raped her twenty years ago, when she was seventeen.
Another woman who filed a lawsuit, April Lampros, said she was a college student in 1994 when she met Combs and began a series of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Combs and those around him that lasted for years.
Combs and his attorneys denied nearly all of the lawsuits’ allegations.
Although authorities did not publicly say the lawsuits had triggered the criminal investigation, Dyer said when the arrest warrants were served that the case was based on “meritless allegations in civil lawsuits.”
The AP generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.
As the founder of Bad Boy Records, Combs became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and managers of the past thirty years. Along with the Notorious BIG, he has collaborated with a slew of top artists including Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.
Combs’ roles in his activities beyond music, including lucrative spirits under private labelA media company and the Sean John Fashion line – were hit hard when the allegations emerged.
The consequences were even greater when the leaked assault video surfaced. Howard University cut ties with him, and he returned his key to New York City at the request of the mayor.
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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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