As closing arguments got under way in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs this week, the music mogul and his son Justin Combs were hit with a new lawsuit, accusing them of a “brutal gang-rape” in 2017.
In the suit filed in a Los Angeles court on Monday, a woman alleges that Justin Combs used his father’s celebrity status to “lure [the] plaintiff, a young female, from Louisiana to Los Angeles where she was literally held prisoner for a weekend and repeatedly raped” by the pair and two other masked men, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit comes amid the final phase of the seven-week trial for Combs, and on the day the mogul’s son Christian, who raps as King Combs, released a seven-song album – including one called Diddy Free – on streaming services. The album, Never Stop, credits King Combs, 27, as the lyricist, and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, as a producer.
Prosecutors have accused Sean Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, of running a criminal enterprise that engaged in sex trafficking, drug distribution, kidnapping, forced labor, arson and bribery, and coercing women, including his former partner singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, into participating in drug-fueled sex marathons.
Combs’s legal troubles kicked off in late 2023 when Ventura filed a lawsuit accusing him of rape and severe physical abuse over the course of a decade, and said he used his power and status to keep her trapped in the relationship. The lawsuit was settled the following day for $20m, but Combs soon faced dozens of lawsuits from others accusing him of sexual and physical abuse.
This week’s lawsuit claims that in 2017 Justin Combs, 31, lured the alleged victim, an “accomplished, degreed professional”, to Los Angeles with the possibility of a job, promising to use his father’s connections. She was, the suit alleges, flown to Los Angeles and taken to a high-end Beverly Hills property where she was eventually drugged and repeatedly raped by Justin Combs and his father and two “unknown, masked” men over the course of a weekend.
Justin Combs allegedly held the potential job “over [the] plaintiff’s head” as well as “risque” photos she had sent him.
The suit accuses Sean Combs of a “pervasive history of sexual assault and violence”.
“The conduct described herein is strikingly similar to how [the] defendant Sean Combs and his entourage conducted themselves for many years, and it appears that Combs’s penchant for sexual violence is shared by his son,” the suit states.
The woman is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the assault, which, according to the suit, left her with “severe emotional distress, emotional anguish, fear, anxiety, humiliation, embarrassment, physical injury, emotional injury and trauma”.
In a statement to media, Combs’s legal team denied the allegations, stating that “anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason”.
The statement said: “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor.”
