Why US security agents raided P Diddy’s homes

Two properties owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs were raided by federal agents on Monday. It is related to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation, according to the Associated Press.

🚨 What just happened?

On Monday afternoon, video and images spread showing federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement searching the music mogul’s Los Angeles and Miami properties.

The Department of Homeland Security Investigations New York told Yahoo Entertainment it “executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation.” Law enforcement sources told multiple news outlets that Combs is the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation. The warrant is out of the Southern District of New York.

A lawyer for Combs, who was accused of sex trafficking by ex-girlfriend Cassie and a Jane Doe late last year, said in a statement Tuesday that the searches carried out by federal authorities at the rappers’ Miami and Los Angeles homes were “a gross use of military-level force” and insisted that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name.

“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” attorney Aaron Dyer said in the first statement issued by Combs’ team since Monday’s raids. “There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.”

Investigators seized phones from Combs, who has also gone by the name Puff Daddy, in Miami before the Bad Boy Records executive was scheduled to travel to the Bahamas, law enforcement sources told NBC News. Combs was photographed walking around the Miami Opa-Locka Airport on Monday afternoon. It’s unclear whether he made the trip.

Footage from outside Combs’s Los Angeles mansion showed men — later identified as Justin and Christian “King” Combs, two of the rapper’s sons — being detained outside the house.

Federal officials interviewed four women and a man related to allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms, according to Rolling Stone. Interviews with three other people are scheduled.

Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who represents Cassie and a Jane Doe accuser, said in a statement to the outlet: “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.”

Attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who represents two other Combs accusers — music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones and Liza Gardner — also released a statement to Rolling Stone, saying, “It’s about damn time. Sometimes justice delayed is not justice denied, so long as justice ultimately arrives.”

How did we end up here?

In November, singer, model and actress Cassie, who had a romantic relationship with Combs for over a decade, filed an explosive lawsuit against him, alleging rape, abuse and sex trafficking. He denied the allegations. One day later, the exes settled the lawsuit, which was filed in New York under the New York Adult Survivors Act. The terms were not disclosed.

That opened the floodgates. Three other women filed lawsuits against Combs in the Southern District of New York alleging that they were sexually assaulted by the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer. Two of the women said they were teenagers at the time. One allegation involved gang rape. Diddy denied the allegations in a statement, insisting he “did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”

In February, Jones, a producer who worked for Combs between 2022 and 2023, sued him, alleging that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him. Jones claimed to have witnessed Combs and others “engaging in serious illegal activity” while he lived and traveled with the superstar. Combs called it “pure fiction.”