Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs says he’s the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ and bemoans ‘military-level force’ used against him as he finally spoke out following the Monday double raid on his estates.
Aaron Dyer, an attorney for the rapper, broke Combs’ silence just over 24 hours after the Homeland Security investigation with a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘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,’ Dyer said.
‘Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities,’ he added. ‘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.’
Combs was seen speaking to customs agents at an airport 15 minutes from his Miami Beach Monday evening but never arrested.
‘This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits,’ Dyer continued.
‘There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.’
The rapper, 54, has not been seen since homeland security agents descended on his properties in Miami and Los Angeles as part of their investigation into alleged sex trafficking.
Sources told Page Six that Combs was planning to fly to the Bahamas to spend time with his 17-year-old twins, Jessie and D’Lila, when the agents swooped in on his properties.
They gathered evidence including a ‘number of’ electronic devices, ABC News reports. No criminal charges have been filed, and Diddy has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.
Flight data shows the rapper took off from the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles at 9 am on Monday.
He was then spotted around 3 pm at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, just a few hours after the raids started.
However, information on the rapper’s personal LoveAir LLC Gulfstream 5 jet is no longer available on plane tracker service.
Diddy was last seen pacing around the customs office at the Miami airport, though he was not being detained in any fashion.
Meanwhile, two of his sons were detained at the scene of the Holmby Hills, California, home while the warrant was executed but released without charges.
Armed agents entered luxury properties on both East and West Coasts of the United States, with video footage showing helicopters circling overhead.
The agents, who were wearing vests, gathered in the home’s backyard near the pool.
Multiple officers were seen carrying bags and boxes of evidence to a van with assistance from police dogs.
PHOTO/AP
There was no immediate official confirmation about what precipitated the raids, but Diddy is currently embroiled in several lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault.
It comes just weeks after one of Diddy’s accusers was ordered to reveal her identity.
The rapper and music mogul has been fighting various legal battles, including one against an unnamed woman who claimed he and two friends sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
After allegedly supplying the woman with ‘copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,’ Diddy and two pals are accused of taking turns violently raping the teen as she drifted in and out of consciousness, leaving her in so much pain that she could barely stand or remember how she got home, according to her complaint.
She says she suffered in silence for 20 years until the R&B singer Cassie sued Combs, her former mentor and ex-boyfriend, for allegedly subjecting her to savage beatings, drug-addled hotel orgies and rape.
Combs denied the claims in that case and the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement barely 24 hours after the suit was made public in November 2023.
After the flurry of subsequent allegations, Diddy tweeted out a new statement under the heading ‘Enough is enough.’
Combs is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.
Formerly known as Puff Daddy, he built one of hip-hop´s biggest empires, blazing a trail with several entities attached to his famous name.
While the woman’s identity has yet to be revealed in the lawsuit, a judge just ruled she would no longer be able to stay anonymous if the suit proceeds.
Diddy has filed a motion to have the woman’s case thrown out, and she will reportedly remain anonymous until the judge rules on that motion.
The accuser was the fourth woman to accuse Diddy of sexual assault in quick succession last year after his ex, the singer Cassie, sued him in November 2023, with the two settling out of court.
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for Cassie and another one of the Jane Does accusing Diddy, responded to the search in a statement to DailyMail.com
‘We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.’
Music producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones Jr., who worked with Combs on ‘The Love Album: Off the Grid,’ is among his accusers.
He filed a lawsuit against the rapper claiming he was ordered to recruit sex workers and have sex with them for the star’s pleasure, and has hundreds of hours of video documenting Combs’s ‘serious illegal activity’.
