A prominent Texas lawyer says he’s now working with 120 people with a range of sexual abuse claims against Sean “Diddy” Combs that have gone through a “stringent” process of vetting and corroboration. The lawyer, Tony Buzbee, claims 25 of the new clients were minors at the time of their alleged abuse.
“When we talk about the ages of the victims when the conduct occurred, it’s shocking,” Buzbee said at a press conference streamed online Tuesday. “Our youngest victim at the time of the occurrence was 9 years old. We have an individual who was 14 years old. We have one who was 15.”
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Buzbee said the youngest alleged victim met with Combs at his Bad Boy offices in Manhattan for an audition. The 9-year-old child was “trying to land a record deal” alongside “other boys” amid a competitive process, the lawyer said. “This individual was sexually abused, allegedly by Sean Combs and several other people, at the studio,” Buzbee said.
Speaking from his law firm in Houston, Buzbee said another client also was underage and hoping to break into the entertainment business when he encountered Combs. The music mogul allegedly told the boy he would “make him a star, but he needed to visit with him in private about it,” away from his parents. “Once they were in a private area, allegedly, Mr. Combs made the victim perform oral sex upon him,” Buzbee said.
The lawyer said the client who was 15 years old alleges she was flown to New York City to attend a party. Buzbee said the teen allegedly was drugged and raped by Combs. He said overall, the youngest alleged victims fit a pattern. “All were seeking either TV or some sort of music career with promises of, you know, ‘We’re going to make you a star,’” Buzbee said. “Instead, basically, [Combs] did things to them so they don’t want to have anything to do with the entertainment industry ever again.”
In a statement, Combs’ lawyer, Erica Wolff, said Combs vehemently denies the allegations. “As Mr. Combs’ legal team has emphasized, he cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus. That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors. He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court if and when claims are filed and served, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation,” Wolff said.
According to Buzbee, his group of 120 clients includes 60 men and 60 women. He said they all “intend to bring civil claims in civil court” against Combs and possible co-defendants described as accomplices, silent bystanders, enablers, and corporate entities such as hotels, banks and even pharmaceutical companies. Buzbee said he expects to start filing the lawsuits in the next 30 days. In a nod to the likelihood some claims might be beyond the statute of limitations, he said New York and California likely will see the majority of his clients’ claims. New York City has a look-back window that’s still open for claims involving gender-motivated violence. California, meanwhile, has a look-back window that can revive certain claims of sexual abuse that involve a cover-up by a corporate entity.
“I expect that through this process, many powerful people will be exposed,” Buzbee said Tuesday, declining to name any names. “Some of this behavior occurred at private residences of people that we all know. … The names that we’re going to name, assuming that our investigators confirm and corroborate what we’ve been told, are names that will shock you.” He said someone who was in a room and watched alleged abuse without intervening to stop could be added as a co-defendant.
“I would imagine as we speak here, there are a myriad of people who are very nervous,” the lawyer said. “You can’t hide skeletons in the closet forever. I would expect there are many people out there right now who are desperately searching their memories as they delete their texts and data.”
Buzbee said more than half of his clients reported their alleged abuse to either law enforcement or medical personnel. He said some tested positive for strange substances. “Drugs were found in their system, weird drugs, drugs that you’ve probably never heard of. One in particular that continues to pop up is a drug called Xylazine, or ‘tranq,’ which based on our research is known as a horse tranquilizer.”
The lawyer said the alleged abuse goes as far back as 1991. “If you wonder why there are so many alleged victims, that’s your answer. We’re talking about more than 25 years of this type of conduct,” he said. “This has been going on for a very long time.”
Buzbee, already known in music circles for representing victims of the deadly crowd crush at Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld concert, first announced his connection to Combs’ case with a social media post last Thursday. He said he was working with Andrew Van Arsdale of the California-based AVA Law Group to represent more than 50 people “who suffered sexual assault and abuse at the hands of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and his cohorts.” On Tuesday, Buzbee said more than 3,200 people had reached out to the law firms in recent days with allegations related to Combs.
“Each individual story is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. The acts complained of occurred at hotels, private homes, and also at the infamous P-Diddy ‘Freak Off’ parties,” he said. “The violations against this group of individuals are mindboggling and can only be described as debauchery and depravity, exacted by powerful people against minors and the weak.”
Combs, 54, was arrested in Manhattan two weeks ago as federal prosecutors unveiled his indictment on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. In a 14-page indictment, prosecutors said Combs ran a criminal enterprise that engaged in “unlawful acts of violence including sexual violence,” interstate transportation for the purposes of prostitution, narcotics distribution, arson, bribery, kidnapping, and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said a main function of the alleged enterprise was to “lure female victims into Combs’ orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” and then use “force, threats of force and coercion” to make the victims engage in “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs called “freak offs.” The extended sex acts often involved commercial sex workers and would sometimes last multiple days, they said. Combs allegedly distributed drugs to his alleged victims to keep them “obedient and compliant,” prosecutors said.
Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges in the indictment and was denied bail. At hearings where they argued for Combs’ release pending trial, lawyers for Combs described the “freak offs” in a much different light. Combs lawyer Marc Agnifilio argued that the allegedly violent sex parties were voluntary. “Is it sex trafficking? No, not if everybody wants to be there,” Agnifilo told the court. “We are not all better off if the federal government comes into our bedrooms. They don’t do great there, and that’s what’s happening here. They’re coming into this man’s bedroom, and they are making not just judgments. They are charging him with statutes that, as they said, could put him in jail for life.”
Descriptions of Combs’ alleged “freak offs” first appeared in the graphic assault and sex-trafficking complaint that Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed last November. Cassie alleged Combs forced her to slather herself in oil and submit to the highly orchestrated sex performances that would trash hotel rooms and leave her badly injured. Her lawsuit said Combs would ply Cassie with “copious amounts” of drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol,” and that the intoxicants allowed her to “disassociate during these horrific encounters.”
The indictment of Combs unsealed Sept.17 in the Southern District of New York alleged that federal investigators seized more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant as well as narcotics and three AR-15 rifles with their serial numbers defaced when they raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach last March.
As he awaits trial in a federal detention center in Brooklyn, Combs is also facing at least a dozen civil lawsuits filed in the wake of Cassie’s explosive lawsuit. Two that were filed last Thanksgiving, just as New York’s Adult Survivors Act was set to expire, allege Combs sexually assaulted women as far back as the early 1990s. He and his lawyers have called the civil lawsuits “fabricated” and filed as a “money grab.”
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