A lawyer in Houston is all set to file civil sexual abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs on behalf of more than 100 people.
At a press conference, Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee said that his law firm and California firm AVA Law Group had been retained by at least 120 individuals “to pursue cases in civil court” against the rapper, who was indicted by federal prosecutors last month on criminal charges.
“We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors,” Buzbee said. “We will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates.”
If filed, the new cases would expand the scale of the allegations against Diddy. At least 12 victims have already filed civil sexual abuse cases against him over the past year, and federal prosecutors have cited “dozens of victims” in court filings in their racketeering and sex trafficking case.
But Buzbee’s alleged victims would dwarf that existing list of alleged victims. At the press conference, he said more than 3,000 individuals had contacted his office and that his firm and AVA were continuing to vet new accusers for potential action.
Buzbee said the alleged incidents go back as far as 1991, and that 25 of the alleged victims were minors when allegedly assaulted by Combs.
The cases will not be filed as a class action, Buzbee said, but as dozens of separate lawsuits filed in various states. He said he plans to start filing the cases within the next 30 days.
In a statement following the news conference, Combs’ attorney Erica Wolff strongly denied the allegations and vowed to fight the looming wave of cases.
“As Mr. Combs’ legal team has emphasized, he cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus,” Wolff said. “That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors. He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.”
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry, but in an indictment unsealed last month, prosecutors alleged that he ran a sprawling criminal operation for decades, aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.”
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources, and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
The charges detailed “freak offs” in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having intercourse with male hustlers, as well as alleged acts of violence and intimidation to keep victims silent.
If convicted on all the charges, he potentially faces a sentence of life in prison.
Buzbee is no stranger to mass litigation. After the deadly 2021 disaster at the Astroworld music festival, his firm represented dozens of alleged victims in lawsuits against Live Nation, Travis Scott, and others, some of which remain pending.
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