Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested Monday in Manhattan, New York, his lawyer said.
The charges on which he was arrested were not immediately clear, but a U.S. Attorney confirmed the arrest was based on a sealed indictment from a federal grand jury. Charges will be unsealed Tuesday.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sean “Diddy” Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal," Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement to Scripps News.
"To his credit, Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court," his attorney said.
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Federal authorities searched Combs' properties in Los Angeles and Miami in March as part of a sex-trafficking investigation. Combs had also in recent months been a defendant in sex abuse lawsuits. He has denied all the allegations in those suits.
One of the highest profile suits was by R&B singer Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, who sued Combs in federal court on accusations of rape and repeated physical and sexual abuse over the course of years.
The lawsuit alleged that starting when she was 19, "Mr. Combs asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura’s personal and professional life, thereby ensuring her inability to escape his hold." It alleges numerous cases of physical and sexual assault.
The suit alleged that Ventura was a victim of sex trafficking, due to the nature of multiple sexual encounters she was coerced into across the country.
That suit was settled just a day after it was filed.
