The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York City announced that Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday.
Deputies said Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel on West 57th Street, where he had been staying for several weeks, and a person familiar with the matter said the arrest caught Combs by surprise.
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams confirmed in a statement that federal agents arrested Combs on Monday night based on a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York.
“We’re scheduled to unseal the indictment tomorrow morning and will have more details at that time,” Williams said.
Combs’ lawyer, Mark Anifilo, expressed disappointment in a statement, saying the 54-year-old Combs was cooperating with the investigation and “voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges.”
“Sean Diddy Combs is a music icon, a self-made entrepreneur, a family man and a proven philanthropist who has built an empire over the past three decades, loves children and strives to uplift the Black community,” the statement said. “He is an imperfect human being, but he is not a criminal.”
“These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide and he hopes to clear his name in court,” he added.
It was not immediately clear what charges Combs, the rapper-turned-music mogul, was arrested on.
Combs has faced a string of lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct since his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, filed a federal lawsuit in November alleging years of physical and sexual abuse, including one filed last week.
Ventura, known by her stage name Cassie, was once signed to Combs’ record label, Bad Boy. The two sides settled the case a day after the lawsuit was filed, but terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Combs’ lawyers said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing. Combs has previously denied the allegations.
Since then, several others have filed lawsuits, including Dawn Richard, who claims that Combs groped and threatened her while employed by her from 2005 to 2012, and that she witnessed him brutally beat Ventura. Combs has strongly denied the allegations in the lawsuit, calling them “sickening allegations” made by people looking to “make a quick buck.”
But in May, after CNN published a video of him punching, kicking and kicking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016, Combs apologized in an Instagram video, said his actions were “unacceptable” and that he had undergone therapy. The video has since been removed from his page.
Richard, who was a member of Danity Kane, the girl group Combs formed on the MTV reality show “Making the Band,” and later became a member of the group Didi Dirty Money, sued Combs last week.
The lawyer said Combs was “shocked and disappointed” by Richard’s lawsuit, which, like Ventura’s, portrays him as controlling and violent.
Ventura’s lawsuit also included sex trafficking allegations. She claimed she was frequently beaten and forced to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes. Combs called the drug-induced sex acts “freak offs” and sometimes recorded them. She also claimed that Combs broke into her home and raped her when she was trying to end their relationship in 2018.
In her lawsuit, Richards said she attended “drug-fueled parties” where guests were asked to surrender their cell phones, and that she witnessed underage girls who appeared to be intoxicated being sexually assaulted by Combs and his guests.
In March, federal agents searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles.
A source familiar with the investigation told NBC News in March that agents had interviewed several people on charges of sex trafficking, sexual assault and soliciting and distributing illegal drugs and firearms.
NBC News reported that the warrant to search Combs’ assets was issued by the Southern District of New York.
Combs, also known as Puffy, Puff Daddy and Love, founded Bad Boy in the early 1990s. He is known as a pioneer in hip-hop, fashion and media, having created the Sean John clothing line and launched the Revolt TV channel, and sold his stake over the summer.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, producer of Combs’ most recent album, alleged in a February lawsuit that Combs forced him into unwanted sexual contact, coerced him into hiring prostitutes and pressured him into having sex with them. Jones said he lived and traveled with Combs from September 2022 to November 2023 and during that time recorded hours of video and audio recordings of Combs, staff and others “engaging in serious misconduct.”
Attorneys Rodney S. Diggs and Tyrone Blackburn, who also represent Combs’ other accusers, said Combs’ “long-awaited arrest” is “an important step toward justice for all of Combs’ victims.”
“We will leave the criminal aspects of this case to the public and our justice system,” they said Monday night. “As for the civil lawsuit, we will await the facts and seek the justice our client deserves. We also expect more victims to come forward. We knew this would happen. The evidence is very clear and it was only a matter of time.”
Howard University severed ties with Combs after the hotel video of him assaulting Ventura was made public. In June, the university revoked his honorary degree and ended a scholarship program named after him. That same month, Combs returned his keys to the city at the request of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
This month, Combs put his Los Angeles home, which was raided in March, on the market for $61.5 million.
