Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing dozens of new allegations of sexual assault in a series of civil lawsuits.
At a press conference held on Tuesday, Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee said he is representing 120 accusers with allegations against the entertainment mogul that occurred over 20 years.
“We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors. We will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates,” Buzbee said during the press conference.
“Many powerful people … many dirty secrets,” the lawyer said of the allegations. He added that his team has “collected pictures, video, texts.”
“It’s a long list already, but because of the nature of this case, we are going to make sure damn sure we are right before we do that,” Buzbee continued. “These names will shock you.”
Buzbee said he’s had more than 3,000 individuals come forward to his office with accusations against Combs and that he plans to file the lawsuits in various states. He also added that they will have other defendants named. Among this new group of accusers, he said, 62 % identify as African American, and that they hail from more than 25 states, with the majority from New York, California, Georgia and Florida.
“Our youngest victim at the time of the occurrence was nine years old,” Buzbee said before adding that 25 of the accusers were minors at the time of the incidents occurring as early as 1991. Buzbee said that the events occurred at parties hosted by Combs, as well as auditions for people hoping to “break into the industry.”
NBC News has reached out Combs’ legal team for comment.
Combs is currently being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York after prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Combs with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in an indictment unsealed last month.
Combs was denied bail twice, but on Monday his legal team, which now includes attorney Alexandra Shapiro alongside Teny Geragos and Marc Agnifilo, filed the first paperwork ahead of an appeal of the bail decision.
Buzbee has represented victims in several other high-profile lawsuits, including against BP in 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also represented individuals accusing NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct in 2021. That same year, he filed a 750-million dollar lawsuit against Travis Scott after a fatal crowd crush at the rapper’s Astroworld Festival.
Combs’ legal issues have been mounting since his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, filed an explosive civil suit against him last year, accusing him of assault and sex trafficking over the course of their relationship. Combs, who denied the accusations, settled with Ventura for an undisclosed amount. Several months later, surveillance video showing Combs brutally beating Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel leaked, and the mogul apologized for his actions.
Since Ventura’s lawsuit, multiple other civil lawsuits have been filed against Combs — most recently one from Dawn Richard, a former member of the girl group Danity Kane who alleges Combs groped, assaulted, imprisoned and threatened her life.
Many of the lawsuits against Combs were filed in New York City, which has the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law allowing people to file lawsuits alleging sexual abuse even after the statute of limitations had passed.
