Sean Combs Arrested By Feds In New York City

Dominic Patten
·4 min read

Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday in New York City by the FBI.

The Grammy-winning rapper and producer has been taken to the FBI offices in Manhattan, according to sources. However, the bureau has neither confirmed nor denied that Combs has been taken into custody. No word yet on any arraignment for Combs, though it will likely come later this week.

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With trafficking charges at the heart of the long probed matter, Combs’ arrest is related to the raids that took place earlier this year at the much-accused rapper’s Los Angeles and Miami homes, I’m told. Combs was arrested in the lobby of the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhatten by Homeland Security Investigations at around 8:30 pm ET or 5:30 pm PT, sources close to events tell Deadline.

Staying mum about what the charges against Combs are, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Southern New York said tonight that all could be public by Tuesday:

In response, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Deadline tonight that his client “is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal.”

“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,” the attorney added (see his full statement below).

While the charges have yet to be made public, Deadline understands that the U.S. Attorney’s Office convened a grand jury for the Combs case in recent weeks.

Since first accused late last year by singer and former girlfriend Cassie Ventura for sexual assault (which was settled a day later for $30 million), Combs has been the alleged perpetrator of sexual assault and other misconduct against multiple women and men. For months now, he has been the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation in New York.

While Combs has denied all accusations, he did admit to the severity of his abuse in his relationship with Ventura after security camera footage emerged of him assaulting her in a L.A. hotel, an apology which Ventura’s lawyers slammed as “disingenuous.” At the end of last month, the artist went on the offensive, launching a bid to dismiss his former Love Album producer Lil Rod’s $30 million sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit, a move the latter’s lawyers deemed “a weak attempt to fill their pockets before he is indicted.”

As recently as last week, one of the singers from the MTV series Making the Band, Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard, filed a lawsuit claiming abuse and assault by Combs. Filed Tuesday in a New York federal court, per NPR, the singer alleged the hip-hop mogul sexually assaulted her, deprived her of food and sleep and refused to pay her fairly.

The embattled rapper has been under fire for the better part of a year. Since the first (now-settled) lawsuit launched by Ventura in November 2023, which traces allegations of violent behavior dating back to the start of his career in the ’90s, Combs has been stripped of honors by Howard University and had a reality project dropped by Hulu. He also divested his stake in his former company, Revolt.

Here’s Agnifilo’s full statement.

“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. 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.”

Natalie Oganesyan contributed to this report.

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