- Federal investigators are gearing up for a potential indictment against Diddy
- READ MORE: Cassie breaks her silence after video of Diddy beating her up
By GERMANIA RODRIGUEZ POLEO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:25 BST, 29 May 2024 | UPDATED: 14:40 BST, 29 May 2024
Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs is facing criminal charges as a grand jury has been selected to hear evidence against him in a federal probe.
The DOJ is gearing up to bring a criminal indictment against him as his accusers have been told they could be brought to testify in New York City, CNN reports.
The rapper and producer has been named in eight lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and human trafficking.
The potential witnesses have not yet been prepped to testify for the prosecution, as Homeland Security investigators are still reportedly gathering evidence in the case.
A source told CNN that detectives want their indictment against Diddy to be ‘bulletproof.’
Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs is facing criminal charges as a grand jury has been selected to hear evidence against him in a federal probe
The indictment would not be related to Diddy’s filmed assault of his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, sued Combs in November over what she said was years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, including beatings and rape.
The suit said he plied her with drugs, forced her to have sex with other men, and raped her in her home as she was trying to end the relationship in 2018. Diddy, through his attorney, ‘vehemently denies’ the accusations.
The legal challenge by Cassie was settled the next day, but spurred intense scrutiny of Diddy, with several more lawsuits filed in the following months, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led authorities to raid Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
The indictment would not be related to Diddy’s filmed assault of his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016
Diddy breaks his silence after shocking video of Cassie beating surfaces
Sean Combs and Cassie Ventura attend the premiere of ‘The Perfect Match’ in Hollywood, California. Two days earlier Combs assaulted Ventura in a hotel hallway
Combs’ sons, Justin and Christian ‘King’ Combs, were handcuffed during the raid at their father’s residence in Los Angeles.
Two more women accused Diddy of sexual abuse in lawsuits filed on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act last November, a New York law permitting victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file civil action regardless of the statute of limitations.
The lawsuits, filed by Joi Dickerson and another woman who was not named, allege acts of sexual assault, beatings and forced drugging in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City’s hip-hop community.
The mother of two of Diddy’s sons, Misa Hylton, shared footage of the raid in the rapper’s Los Angeles mansion, calling it an ‘overtly militarized force’
Armed agents entered luxury properties on both East and West Coasts of the United States
Law enforcement were removing boxes of evidence and a laptop from Diddy’s Star Island mansion in Miami Beach
In December, another woman alleged in a lawsuit that in 2003 when she was 17, Diddy and two other men raped her. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan says she was living in a Detroit suburb and was flown to a New York studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol that made her incapable of consenting to sex, and the men took turns raping her.
The same day, Diddy posted a statement on Instagram broadly denying all the allegations in the mounting series of lawsuits.
‘I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,’ the post says. ‘I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.’
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, 54, was pictured smoking a cigarette in his native Miami after breaking his silence after shocking video of him beating up his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura surfaced this week
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Diddy coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
The lawsuit gives a long list of potentially illegal activities dealing with drugs and sex that the producer says he witnessed. A lawyer for the rapper called the allegations ‘pure fiction.’
The rapper 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.
He is the founder of Bad Boy Records and a three-time Grammy winner who has worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.