Homeland Security Investigations' federal sex trafficking probe comes after series of civil lawsuits cast scrutiny on hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs won't be able to buy his way out of trouble if the federal sex-trafficking probe against him uncovers any crimes, according to a former investigator.
Two of the Bad Boy Records founder's mansions were raided last week after a series of damning civil lawsuits accused him of trafficking sex, guns and drugs and other bad behavior. He settled the first lawsuit, from R&B singer Cassie, his ex-girlfriend whose real name is Casandra Ventura, a day after she filed it.
But after she came forward, so did at least three women and a man, including a female who would have been under 18 at the time of her alleged sex assault.
"You can pay off folks in civil lawsuits to make them go away," said Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent. "But that doesn’t work in a sound criminal investigation – especially on a federal level when it comes to sex trafficking allegations."
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Homeland Security Investigations agents descended on Combs' mansions in Los Angeles and Miami in connection with what law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital is a sex-trafficking probe.
"After the Epstein debacle, folks know you won’t be able to just make these cases disappear," she added.
And if the case goes to criminal court, there won't be a non-disclosure agreement.
The raids came weeks after music producer Rodney Jones' lawsuit accused Combs of all kinds of misdeeds, including sexual grooming, covering up a studio shooting and allegedly bragging about "having law enforcement under control," "murdering people" and bribing witnesses and jurors in a high-profile New York City nightclub shooting.
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Combs and his then-girlfriend, the pop megastar Jennifer Lopez, were arrested after a December 1999 shooting at Club New York left three people injured. Lopez was never charged.
Combs and another man were acquitted at trial. But his friend and protege, the rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, served a decade in prison for assault.
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Jones' lawsuit alleges that Lopez snuck a gun into the club for Combs and handed it to her boyfriend before gunfire erupted and injured three people.
A surviving victim, Natania Reuben, told NewsNation last week that she watched Combs shoot her in the face – not Barrow.
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"I literally watched them pull out the guns," she told the station. "I had a clear point of view. I mean, for God's sake, I got shot in my nose."
It's unlikely that Combs could be in trouble for the nightclub shooting, Parker said, because there's typically no federal nexus for a local gunfight, especially after he was already acquitted at trial.
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But other evidence from the civil lawsuits likely played a role in the federal investigation and could turn out to be crucial in a potential criminal case.
"They’ll use a lot of the same evidence to build their case," she said. "Anyone is innocent until proven guilty, but the evidence is mounting."
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Ventura, in her settled lawsuit, had also accused Combs of forcing her to carry a gun for him. Jones alleged that the mogul was often "displaying and distributing guns" in his presence in order to "maintain dominion and control" over other people.
Combs and his lawyers have denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The billionaire has also characterized the accusations against him as attempts for his accusers to secure a "quick payday."
He has not been arrested.
Photographs taken over the weekend show him in and around his waterfront Miami mansion.
