Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing a series of new civil lawsuits filed in federal court Monday.
The five complaints, first obtained by NBC News, were filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of three males and two females, none of whom are named in the filings. The incidents alleged in the complaints span from 1995 to 2021 and include allegations of sexual assault and rape.
Among the accusers is a woman who was a 19-year-old college student when she alleges Combs raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2004. All of the incidents occurred in either New York City or the Hamptons, according to the suits. One of the lawsuits includes an incident alleged to have happened at Combs’ lavish Labor Day “White Parties” at his Hamptons property.
The lawsuits were filed by Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee — who announced at a press conference on Oct. 1 that he was representing accusers with allegations against Combs — under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act. Under this law, victims have a two-year window ending in March 2025 to file older claims.
Buzbee told NBC News, “We’re going to just try to file cases that we feel are credible and legitimate,” Buzbee said.
The lawsuits, filed Monday, name Combs and his various businesses as defendants and the accusers are seeking unspecified damages.
NBC News has not independently corroborated any of the allegations in the complaints.
“There’s an overarching theme here, as you probably can see, which is basically Sean Combs feels like he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it,” Buzbee said in an interview with NBC News ahead of filing the suits.
NBC News has reached out to Combs’ legal team for comment. However, Combs has previously denied all civil and criminal claims via his attorneys saying the accusations leveled against him are “sickening” and the result of people looking for a “quick payday.”
The oldest of the allegations comes from a woman who alleges she was assaulted and raped by Combs in a bathroom in 1995 when she attended a music video release party, court documents allege. At least two of the lawsuits contain allegations that accusers’ drinks were spiked with drugs making it hard to fight back during alleged sexual assaults.
In 2006, one accuser alleges, Combs sexually assaulted him in the Hamptons at one of his “White Parties.” The man who worked for a security company at the time said he alerted a supervisor after the incident, according to court documents.
Then in 2008, another lawsuit alleges that Combs physically and sexually assaulted an employee of a popular clothing brand at a Manhattan department store, according to the lawsuit. That man, who says he lost his job a short-time after the incident, said he reported the incident to the store’s security, according to the lawsuit.
The most recent allegation described in one of the lawsuits was an incident that happened in 2021. The accuser alleges he felt disoriented after one drink at a party and was sexually assaulted by Combs and other unknown men, according to court documents.
The new filings come as the embattled music mogul is fighting his pre-trial detention on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. While the specific allegations in the lawsuits are new, the court documents lay out a disturbing picture of drug-fueled parties combined with violence that mirror some of the details in his criminal indictment filed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York last month.
These latest lawsuits come after a New York judge set a May 5 trial date for Combs’ criminal case. He is currently awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Federal prosecutors stated in a hearing last week that they are going through data on over 90 devices belonging to Combs which were seized at his properties in raids earlier this year and when he was arrested in New York.
Combs, who was denied bail twice by two separate judges, is seeking to have those decisions overturned. In a filing ahead of last week’s hearing, attorneys for Combs filed a bail appeal in New York’s federal appeals court.
Buzbee’s latest civil suits are among several filed since Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Venture filed a federal lawsuit in New York nearly a year ago, accusing Combs of physical and sexual abuse over a period of years. Combs and Ventura settled for an undisclosed amount the following day. In a statement at the time of the settlement, Combs denied all of the allegations.
But in May, CNN published a surveillance video of Combs beating Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Combs then apologized for the incident but said it was a one-off instance and that he had sought therapy and had changed.
Last week, Combs’ legal team filed a petition claiming that the government had provided the video of the incident involving Ventura to CNN and had been responsible for leaking other information to the media.
“Between the grand jury leaks and the incendiary public statements, the agents all but ensured that the grand jury would be tainted as well as the general public from which we will soon select a jury,” the filing stated.
Combs’ legal team is seeking an evidentiary hearing on the matter, but prosecutors have denied the accusations. The judge overseeing the case said during last week’s hearing that he will likely impose a reciprocal gag order preventing both sides from engaging with the media.
