Growing number of men accuse Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of sexual assault

Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing a new wave of sexual assault lawsuits this week, with seven new complaints filed against the music mogul in New York courts Monday morning. The recent deluge of lawsuits — including six filed last week, all by a team of lawyers led by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who promises up to 120 lawsuits in total over time — have all been submitted anonymously and accuse Combs of a range of sexual abuses. Most of the complainants allege that they were drugged before being assaulted.

But these lawsuits stand out for another reason: The majority have been filed by men.

Eight of the 13 most recent complaints come from male accusers, including two who say they were minors at the time of the alleged assaults. Several accusers claim they were working for or had worked with the superstar producer prior to the encounters they are suing over.

In total, 25 sexual assault lawsuits have been filed against Combs in the past year. Among the first 12, two accusers were male: Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer who worked on Combs’s most recent project, 2023’s “The Love Album”; and Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a Michigan prison inmate.

Jones was the first to suggest that other celebrities had been involved in Combs’s “freak-offs,” drug-fueled sex parties that, according to a lawsuit filed this year, included trafficked sex workers. Jones also accused actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of sexually harassing and assaulting him on a yacht rented by Combs in January 2023. Gooding denied Jones’s allegations in a podcast interview in May, saying that he was an “easy target” because of his previous sexual misconduct and that Jones was “going after the money.”

The latest batch of lawsuits also includes a plaintiff who says she was 13 when she was assaulted at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000. The lawsuit claims Combs, alongside an unnamed male and female celebrity, raped her.

Four of the new filings claim that assaults took place as recently as 2022.

When asked for comment Monday, representatives for Combs, who has generally denied all wrongdoing, pointed to a previous statement from his attorneys. “Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process,” the statement reads. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”

The eight anonymous men who have sued Combs allege that he assaulted them between 1998 and 2022. They include teens hoping to break into the music industry, a man who worked for a rival clothing company, a security staffer at one of Combs’s famous “White Parties” and a personal trainer.

The youngest, who was 16 at the time of his alleged assault, said he was invited to Combs’s 1998 White Party — an annual star-studded event hosted by the hip-hop impresario from 1998 to 2009. After a chance encounter with Combs at the party, the man said, the famed producer fondled his genitals. According to court filings, Combs had persuaded the teen, an aspiring musician, to take off his pants by saying it was a rite of passage in the industry.

These claims are echoed in a lawsuit filed Monday to the Supreme Court of New York. According to the suit, the plaintiff was a 17-year-old with a desire to work in music when he was invited to an exclusive party hosted by Combs at a Manhattan hotel penthouse in 2022.

The lawsuit alleges that Combs offered the teen a beverage that left him dizzy and weak, and that while the teen tried to find the bathroom, he stumbled into a backroom where an orgy was taking place. There, Combs pulled him toward the bed and fondled the alleged victim’s genitals, the filing says.

The new filings include two more men who say Combs groped them until their assaults were interrupted. One man who operated a private security service claims Combs fondled him in August 2005 at a Harlem party. Combs stopped when the plaintiff’s wife walked into the room, according to the lawsuit. Another man, who had rented luxury cars and jewelry to Combs in the past, accused Combs of groping him at a Cîroc party in 2022. (Combs partnered with the premium vodka brand until 2024.) That assault was interrupted when a professional athlete walked into the room, the lawsuit claims.

Several men have accused Combs of raping them. These include a consultant, a staffer for a clothing company and a person who took a last-minute security job at a 2006 White Party.

The most recent rape being alleged by a male accuser occurred, according to a lawsuit filed to the Southern District of New York, at an awards show after-party hosted by Combs in Los Angeles in 2022.

A personal trainer, who says he was referred to Combs by a client who was a fashion designer, alleges that he drank a beverage at the party without knowing it had been drugged. After he became incapacitated, a Combs associate led him to a room where a dozen people, including Combs and other “well known figures,” were participating in an orgy, the filing says. While going in and out of consciousness, the trainer was forced into sex acts with men and women, the lawsuit claims, including Combs and an unnamed male celebrity.

Combs remains in federal custody in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center as he awaits trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He has appealed for bail multiple times, but it has so far been denied. A Manhattan judge has set the trial date for May 5.

On Sunday, Combs’s attorneys requested a gag order, asking a New York judge to prohibit any potential witnesses or their attorneys from speaking out against Combs. These statements “substantially interfere with Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial,” his attorneys said.

“Mr. Combs has been the target of an unending stream of allegations by prospective witnesses and their counsel in the press,” the request read, naming Buzbee, Gloria Allred and other attorneys who have spoken out against him.

Combs’s attorneys asked that any response be filed by Oct. 30. “This request,” they said, “is time sensitive. Each day that passes brings a fresh wave of publicity, often at the direction of accusers and their counsel, further prejudicing Mr. Combs’ right to a fair trial.”

Less than a week ago, attorneys for Combs asked a judge to order federal prosecutors to publicly identify all alleged victims in the criminal case, saying that the information was relevant so Combs could properly prepare for trial.