A lawyer for Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul whose homes were raided by federal agents on Monday, called the searches “a gross abuse of military-level power” and criticized them as “nothing more than a witch hunt based on in unjust accusations in civil actions’.
“There is no justification for the excessive display of force and hostility displayed by the authorities or the manner in which the children and their employees were treated,” the attorney, Aaron Dyer, said in a statement Tuesday. “Mr. Combs was never taken into custody, but spoke and cooperated with authorities. Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested or restricted in their ability to travel in any way ».
On Monday, armed Homeland Security Investigations agents searched two of Mr. Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida. The authorities did not say whether Mr. Combs was a target or what criminal charges they were investigating. Video taken by a local Los Angeles television station, Fox 11, shows armed officers entering a home in the city’s exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood.
“This unprecedented ambush – coupled with an advanced, coordinated media presence – is leading to a premature rush to judgment on Mr Combs,” Mr Dyer said. “No criminal or civil liability has been established with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every day to clear his name.”
On the same day as those searches, federal agents also stopped Mr. Combs at an airport in the Miami area as he prepared to leave with family members for the Bahamas and took a number of electronic devices from Mr. Combs, according to the person. with knowledge of the subject. Mr. Combs was not arrested and remained in the United States, according to this person.
The raid was a dramatic development for Mr Combs, who has been one of the highest-profile figures in the music industry for decades, credited with turning hip-hop and R&B in the 1990s into a global business. He’s worked with stars like Mary J. Blige and the Notorious BIG, and just last fall he was showered with industry accolades.
Videos and photos of the raid broadcast by news organizations and widely circulated on social media showed agents breaking down a door at Mr. Combs’ mansion and seizing computers and other devices.
The investigation was directed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to a law enforcement official. Federal investigators in New York have conducted interviews asking potential witnesses about allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Combs, according to a person familiar with the interviews.
The raid this week followed a series of civil lawsuits in recent months accusing Mr. Combs, often in graphic and disturbing detail, of sexual assault. The first, in November, was filed by Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, an ex-girlfriend of Mr. Combs and an artist he once signed to his record label, Bad Boy. She alleged that in addition to rape and physical abuse, Mr. Combs forced her to have sex with male prostitutes in hotels across the United States over a period of years.
Ms. Ventura’s case was settled in just one day, with her and Mr. Combs both saying they had reached their settlement “amicably” and a lawyer for Mr. Combs noting that the agreement “in no way constitutes an admission of guilt”.
Lawsuits by three other women were filed in quick succession, each accusing Mr. Combs of sexual assault. And in February, a music producer filed another lawsuit, saying he had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Combs and forced to hire prostitutes and engage in sexual acts with them.
In previous statements, Mr. Combs and his lawyers have flatly denied the allegations in those lawsuits, saying they were filed by people seeking “paydays.” But the suits have made Mr Combs a pariah in the music industry and put much of his wider business empire at risk.
Hamed Alaziz contributed reporting from Washington, DC;
