A lawyer for hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs says that he is “disappointed” in federal authorities for pursuing an “unjust prosecution” after his client was arrested in New York City.
Combs, 54, was arrested in Manhattan on Monday night following a grand jury indictment, according to a U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York. Combs has recently been the subject of a federal investigation and 10 civil lawsuits concerning sexual abuse, misconduct and sex trafficking.
The charges against Combs were unclear at the time of publication, although The New York Times reported that a “person familiar with the prosecution said they believed Mr. Combs was being charged with racketeering and sex trafficking.”
“Earlier this evening, federal agents arrested Sean Combs, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY [Southern District of New York],” Damian Williams, district U.S. attorney, said in a statement Monday night. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”
A lawyer for Combs, who has also gone by “Puffy” and “Puff Daddy” professionally, said that he was “disappointed” in federal authorities for what he called an “unjust prosecution” of Combs.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Combs lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in a statement emailed to Newsweek. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community.”
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” he added. “To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
During a CNN appearance on Monday night, legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig said that Combs was likely being indicted in the SDNY because the district specializes in “high-stakes cases.”
Honig went on to predict that Combs would appear in court on Tuesday and “almost certainly enter a not-guilty plea,” while pointing out that “there are no cameras in federal court.”
The recent and continuing avalanche of legal trouble for Combs began in November, when the music mogul settled a sexual and physical abuse lawsuit from former girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura. A video appearing to show Combs physically assaulting her in 2016 was released by CNN in May.
Combs has since been hit with nine other similar civil lawsuits, while the federal sex trafficking investigation, which included the raiding of his homes in Florida and California, began in March.