he federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is scheduled to start May 5, a judge in New York declared on Thursday.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing a series of new lawsuits filed in federal court Monday.
The six complaints, first obtained by NBC News, were filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of four 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 accusations of sexual assault and rape.
Among the accusers is a man who was 16 at the time of the alleged incident and 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 alleged incidents occurred in New York City or the Hamptons, according to the suits. Two of the lawsuits include incidents 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 an Oct. 1 news conference 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.
“We’re going to just try to file cases that we feel are credible and legitimate," Buzbee said.
The lawsuits name Combs and his various businesses as defendants, and the accusers are seeking unspecified damages.
Lawyers for Combs denied the allegations and misconduct.
“The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity," the said in a statement Monday evening. "Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”
NBC News has not independently corroborated any of the allegations in the complaints.
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“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 before filing the lawsuits.
Combs has 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 one lawsuit, a man alleges he was sexually assaulted in 1998 when he was 16 years old at one of Combs' "White Parties" in the Hamptons. In the lawsuit, he alleges he spoke with Combs about his aspirations to break into the music industry and that the interaction took a turn when Combs asked the accuser to expose himself. He claims he did so out of fear and that Combs sexually assaulted him, according to the lawsuit.
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 that were seized at his properties in raids 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 Casandra “Cassie” Ventura 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.
In the months since Ventura’s lawsuit, several individuals have sued Combs including Dawn Richard, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane, who alleged that Combs groped, assaulted and imprisoned her and threatened her life.
— Dan Mangan, CNBC contributed.
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