Diddy cut a carefree figure as he cycled around Miami on Thursday – as he faces a sex trafficking probe and multiple mounting lawsuits.
The musician, 54 – real name Sean Love Combs- saw his Miami and LA homes swarmed by federal agents last week as part of an investigation into sex trafficking – with Combs branding the raids ‘militant’ and denying all allegations of wrongdoing.
Brushing off the drama, a smiling Diddy flashed the peace sign as he enjoyed some exercise in the Floridian city.
The star wore a black top and shorts, paired with matching sneakers as he broadly grinned for snappers.
His 17-year-old twins Jessie and D’Lila Combs, are currently vacationing with LeBron James’ son, Bryce, in the Turks and Caicos.
In a statement after the raids, Diddy’s attorney Aaron Dyer called them an ‘unprecedented ambush’ and a ‘witch hunt’ against the businessman.
Diddy cut a carefree figure as he cycled around Miami on Thursday – as he faces a sex trafficking probe and multiple mounting lawsuits
So far, he has not been arrested in relation to the raids, nor has he been charged with any crime.
Dyer’s full statement at the time read: ‘Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.
‘Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities. Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been restricted in any way.’
The raids came after the Harlem-born hip-hop star was hit with a slew of lawsuits alleging sexual assault, rape, and other crimes after he settled his ex-girlfriend Cassie’s similar lawsuit in November.
‘Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation, and my legacy,’ Diddy wrote December 6 in his only statement on the matter.
‘Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family, and for the truth.’
‘I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,’ Cassie said in a statement.
The suit alleged he controlled and abused her for over a decade – as well as plying her with drugs, beating her, and forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched and recorded.
The musician, 54 – real name Sean Love Combs- saw his Miami and LA homes swarmed by federal agents last week as part of an investigation into sex trafficking – with Combs branding the raids ‘militant’ and denying all allegations of wrongdoing
Armed agents entered Diddy’s luxury properties on both East and West Coasts of the United States last week
The star looked in great spirits despite his legal turmoil
Brushing off the drama, a smiling Diddy flashed the peace sign as he enjoyed some exercise in the Floridian city
The pair, who met in 2005 when she was aged 19, split in 2018. The lawsuit claimed that just before the end of their relationship, he forced his way into her home and raped her.
After Ventura launched her lawsuit, Liza Gardner and Joie Dickerson-Neal also filed papers claiming the rapper sexually assaulted them in the early 1990s.
Combs sent out a tweet denying the accusations in December and saying that all allegations made against him are from people ‘looking for a quick payday’.
The star stepped down as chairman of Revolt TV in November and saw Hulu scrap a planned reality TV show that would have featured his family, in December.
Cassie and multiple other women who have sued him for sexual assault in recent months are reportedly cooperating with federal investigators as an alleged sex trafficking probe involving the hip hop mogul heats up.
Cassie has been working with investigators for ‘several weeks,’ sources with direct knowledge told TMZ on Wednesday.
The timing means that the 37-year-old singer may have even been working with feds in the run-up to the dual Homeland Security raids on the rapper-turned-executive’s Los Angeles and Miami mansions.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation said that Cassie may have helped authorities establish the probable cause needed to get a judge to sign off on search warrants on the two mansions.
Diddy relaxed as he cycled along in Miami
Diddy broadly grinned as he took in the sights
The star was enjoying some exercise as he hunkers down in Miami Beach
Although the contents of Cassie’s conversations with investigators are unknown, she has presumably been speaking about the accusations contained in her lawsuit, which Diddy settled after just one day.
In addition to accusing the record label head of rape, sexual battery and physical abuse, she also claimed that he had forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched and masturbated.
The rapper allegedly photographed and filmed some of these encounters, and Cassie claimed that she was forced to watch the recordings of herself having sex with other men while under the influence of copious drugs.
Elsewhere in her suit, the singer alleged that Diddy at one point made her hold his gun in her handbag, and she claimed that in 2012 he blew up the rapper Kid Cudi’s car in retaliation for a brief relationship he and Cassie had when she was on the outs with him, which Diddy allegedly told Cassie he planned to do beforehand.
Cudi agreed with Cassie’s claims about the car bombing, tell the New York Times that ‘This is all true.’
Diddy and Cassie were together for around 10 years, though they were on and off at several times before the relationship ended for good in 2018.
Diddy has vehemently denied all of Cassie’s claims, as well as the claims of the successive women who sued him over similar offenses in subsequent months.
However, at least some of those women are also reportedly speaking with investigators.
The additional accusers may have strengthened the authorities’ case, as many of the women’s allegations bore strong similarities to Cassie’s initial set of accusations.
However, it’s not currently known which of the other accusers are cooperating.
Diddy’s former producer Rodney Jones has also filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he witnessed sex trafficking and was groped and threatened while working for the mogul, but it’s not known if he has been speaking with federal investigators.
Diddy’s outing comes as one of his old rap friends Travell ‘G. Dep’ Coleman was released from prison on Thursday after serving 13 years for murder.
Records from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision obtained by TMZ show Dep was released under the prison’s Limited Credit Time Allowance program, which allows eligible inmates a six-month credit on their existing sentences.
The rapper, now 49, will have to ‘check in with his parole officer, refrain from possessing weapons and drugs without medical authorization, and will have to get permission to leave the State of New York’.
Coleman turned himself in for a nearly two-decade-old cold murder case in 2010 – and was convicted in 2012 for the murder of John Henkel,
The rapper was one of the rising stars of hip-hop impresario Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs´ Bad Boy Records label in the late 1990s.
He had hits with ‘Special Delivery’ and ‘Let´s Get It’ and helped popularize a loose-limbed dance called the Harlem shake in the early 2000s.
But his career slumped by late 2010, with at least a dozen arrests on drug, trespassing and other charges.
Diddy’s outing comes as one of his old rap friends Travell ‘G. Dep’ Coleman was released from prison on Thursday after serving 13 years for murder
The rapper, who was convicted in 2012 for the murder of John Henkel (pictured) is now a free man
Governor Hochul granted 12 pardons and four commutations ahead of the holiday weekend, marking the third time Hochul has granted clemency in 2023
The rapper was one of the rising stars of hip-hop impresario Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs´ Bad Boy Records label in the late 1990s
Attorney Anthony L. Ricco said at the time that Coleman ‘had been haunted’ by the 1993 fatal shooting of Henkel and decided to confess to it.
The rapper showed up at the police precinct on December 15, 2010, and admitted to killing Henkel, a father of three, outside a Harlem apartment complex around 1 am on October 19, 1993.
Coleman calmly explained that he had shot someone after demanding money on a street corner when he was 18 years old, two detectives said at a court hearing in 2012.
‘He said that he felt bad and that it was eating him up,’ Detective Dave Feliciano said.
In December he was granted clemency by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Two years ahead of his original parole eligibility in 2025, his sentence was commuted by the Democratic governor, who also granted clemency to 15 other individuals on Friday.
Combs was sued November 16 by the singer Cassie, who accused him of rape and physical abuse before the case was settled out of court
Governor Hochul granted 12 pardons and four commutations ahead of the holiday weekend, marking the third time Hochul has granted clemency in 2023.
The victim’s brother, Robert Henkel, had demanded Hochul reject the urgings by prosecutor David Drucker to release Coleman, calling it a ‘farce.’
He told the New York Post that ‘it is one thing to seek (clemency) for drug crimes – but not murder.’