The 54-year-old hip-hop mogul is currently in jail after being charged last month with racketeering and sex trafficking.
ADVERTISEMENTSean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with a new wave of lawsuits accusing him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a then 16-year-old boy.
It is the first time he’s been sued by a person alleging they were abused as a minor.
At least six lawsuits were filed against Combs in federal court in Manhattan, adding to a growing list of legal claims against the indicted hip-hop mogul, all of which he has denied.
The lawsuits were filed anonymously to protect the identities of the accusers, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.
Some of the Does, echoing others who’ve accused Combs in recent months, allege that he used his fame and the promise of potential stardom to entice victims to lavish parties or drug-fueled hangouts where he then assaulted them. Some allege that he beat or drugged them. Others say he threatened to kill them if they didn’t do as he pleased or if they spoke out against him.
The lawsuits describe alleged assaults dating to the mid-1990s, including at Combs’ celebrity-studded white parties in Long Island’s Hamptons, at a party in Brooklyn celebrating Combs’ then-collaborator Biggie Smalls, and even in the storeroom at Macy’s flagship department store in midtown Manhattan.
One of the John Does claims Combs molested him when he was 16 at one of the rapper’s parties in 1998. The man alleges the assault occurred during a conversation about how to become a music star. Combs is alleged to have said: “Don’t you want to break into the business?”
The other lawsuits include allegations of rape and drugging to incapacitate victims. One of the Jane Does alleged Combs raped her in a hotel room in 2004 and forced her friend to perform a sex act on him – and also threatened to have them both killed if they did not comply with his demands.
The plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuits are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 accusers who are in the process of taking legal action against Combs following his federal sex trafficking arrest on 16 September.
In a statement, Combs’ lawyers slammed those tactics as “clear attempts to garner publicity,” and said the rapper and his legal team “have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, which involves allegations he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Twice denied bail, the Bad Boy Records founder remains locked up at a Brooklyn federal jail while awaiting trial in May.
