Feds raid Sean Combs homes in LA and Miami as part of criminal probe in New York: NBC News

Federal
agents
raided
homes
owned
by

hip-hop
mogul

Sean
Combs
in
Los
Angeles
and
Miami
as
part
of
a
criminal
probe
based
in
New
York,
NBC
News
reported,
citing
sources.

U.S.
Department
of
Homeland
Security
agents
who
raided
Combs’
properties
were
authorized
to
search
them
by
warrants
issued
in
Manhattan
federal
court,
months
after
a
series
of
lawsuits
accused
Combs
of
serious

sexual
misconduct,
law
enforcement
sources
said.

Phones
were
seized
from
the
54-year-old
Combs
in
Miami
before
he
was
scheduled
to
leave
for
a
trip
to
the
Bahamas,
according
to
NBC.

A
source
familiar
with
the
situation
told
NBC
that
three
women
and
one
man
have
been
interviewed
in
New
York
by
federal
authorities
in
connection
to
a
probe
involving
possible
sex
trafficking,
sexual
assault,
the
solicitation
and
distribution
of
illegal
narcotics
and
firearms
related
to
Combs,
who
is
also
known
as “Diddy,” “Puff
Daddy”
and “P.
Diddy.”

Interviews
with
three
more
women,
identified
as “Jane
Does,”
are
scheduled.

“Earlier
today,
Homeland
Security
Investigations
(HSI)
New
York
executed
law
enforcement
actions
as
part
of
an
ongoing
investigation,
with
assistance
from
HSI
Los
Angeles,
HSI
Miami,
and
our
local
law
enforcement
partners,”
Homeland
Security
said
in
a
statement
to
NBC
4
Los
Angeles.

Benjamin
Brafman,
a
New
York
attorney
who
has
represented
Combs,
did
not
immediately
respond
to
CNBC’s
request
for
comment.

Combs
has
denied
the
civil
allegations
against
him.

The
raids
come
a
month
after
a

music
producer
named
Rodney “Li
Rod”
Jones
filed
a
lawsuit
in
Manhattan
federal
court
claiming
that
Combs
sexually
harassed,
drugged
and
threatened
him
while
he
was
living
and
traveling
with
Combs.

Tyrone
Blackburn,
a
lawyer
for
Jones,
and
two
women
who
have
sued
Combs,
in
a
statement
to
NBC
News
said, “We
can
appreciate
today’s
raids
by
the
federal
government;
however,
today’s
events
are
not
going
to
prevent
nor
delay
my
clients’
pending
and
forthcoming
actions
for
justice
and
resolution
from
the
Combs
RICO
Enterprise.”

Douglas
Wigdor,
a
New
York
lawyer
for
singer
Casandra Ventura,
who
quickly
settled
a
bombshell
lawsuit
against
Combs
last
fall
accusing
him
of
raping
and
sex
trafficking
her,
said
he
was
also
representing
a “Jane
Doe”
in
the
federal
probe
of
Combs.

“We
will
always
support
law
enforcement
when
it
seeks
to
prosecute
those
that
have
violated
the
law,”
Wigdor
said
in
a
statement.

“Hopefully,
this
is
the
beginning
of
a
process
that
will
hold
Mr.
Combs
responsible
for
his
depraved
conduct,”
the
lawyer
said.

Combs
was
sued
in
Manhattan
federal
court
by
Ventura,
who
is
known
as
Cassie.

Cassie’s
suit
said
that
in
2005,
when
she
was
19
years
old,
Combs
lured
her
into
a
professional
relationship
by
signing
her
to
his
label,
Bad
Boy
Records,
and
within
several
years,
induced
her
into
a
sexual
relationship,
and
introduced
her “to
a
lifestyle
of
excessive
alcohol
and
substance
abuse
and
required
her
to
procure
illicit
prescriptions
to
satisfy
his
own
addictions.”

The
suit
claimed
Combs
raped
Cassie
in
her
home
after
she
tried
to
leave
him, “blew
up”
another
man’s
car
after
learning
of
his
romantic
interest
in
her
and
often
beat
and
kicked
her.

Cassie
and
Combs
agreed
to
settle
her
complaint
for
undisclosed
terms
just
a
day
after
she
filed
the
suit.

But
after
that
settlement,
two
other
women,
Liza
Gardner
and
Joie
Dickerson-Neal,
in
lawsuits
of
their
own
accused
Combs
of
sexually
assaulting
them.

A
fourth
woman,
identified
in
court
filings
as
Jane
Doe,
sued
Combs
in
December,
accusing
him
of
gang
raping
her
two
decades
ago,
when
she
was
17
years
old,
with
the
former
president
of
his
record
label
and
another
person.

Blackburn,
the
attorney,
represents
Gardner
and
Jane
Doe.

A
lawyer
for
Dickerson-Neal
declined
to
comment
to
NBC
News
about
the
raids
on
Combs’
homes.

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