By Lindsay Eagar
When it rains, it pours—and when a celebrity’s alleged criminal activity and the impending cultural downfall is in the news, it’s difficult to go anywhere online without spotting the story. This month’s headlines are focused on Sean Combs, an American musician currently charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Other allegations in a recently unsealed federal indictment include nonconsensual pornography (recording sexual activity without consent), possession and distribution of illegal drugs and firearms, physical abuse against romantic partners and staff members, and using intimidation and violence to cover up criminal activities.
What Did P Diddy Do?
For the uninitiated, Sean Combs (who has performed under the stage names “Diddy,” “P. Diddy,” and “Puff Daddy”) is a rapper, music producer, and record executive who is among the wealthiest musicians of all time. He’s hit Billboard charts, received Grammy nominations, and nurtured and developed the work of other musical artists, such as Usher and Mary J. Blige. He’s been a mainstay in hip-hop and R&B since the 1990s. Stories about his wild, outrageous parties and the ensuing debauchery have long circulated on celebrity gossip sources.
Combs has also established a criminal history since the beginning of his career with charges of alleged physical and sexual assault, sex trafficking, creation of nonconsensual pornography, and exploitation since 1991. None of these resulted in major convictions, and in some cases these allegations were settled out of court or dismissed when the statute of limitations had expired. These controversies and accusations showcase the pattern of violence and sexual exploitation with which Combs conducts his relationships, both personal and professional.
Beginning in November 2023, a wave of federal lawsuits were filed against Combs alleging abusive behavior. Nine women and two men are suing Combs for sexual harassment, rape, nonconsensual pornography, sex trafficking, physical assault, and more. Due to the pattern of the alleged behavior, Combs’s federal prosecutors are investigating the case as a racketeering conspiracy, claiming Combs “created a criminal enterprise” in which he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
The sequence of events in the Sean Combs investigation is old hat at this point: allegations become legal charges. Headlines accrue, and the public is informed that these transgressions are established habits, that these accusations have been passed along in whisper networks for years before they were ever presented before a court of law. We’ve seen perpetual abusers exposed and prosecuted in the last decade—Harvey Weinstein, of course, and also Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Danny Masterson, and others.
Why Did They Arrest P. Diddy?
Often when a new name pops up in the media feed, my first thought is “Here we go again,” by which I mean I am likely to bear witness to the same media cycle yet again—a man (it is almost always a man) is named, allegations are listed, charges are announced. There are quotes by coworkers expressing shock, there is outrage in the comments, there is a small circle of defenders. The alleged abuser is mentally placed on an ever-growing list of “bad” celebrities. Some people might avoid watching their movies, listening to their music, or engaging in their work. For others there is a definitive divide between an artist and their work (I have nothing exciting or new to add to that subject, except to say that for every excellent point that is brought up on one side of the discourse, there is an equally excellent point on the other). And then we are suddenly done with the story. Perhaps the story goes quiet only because a new name arrives in the headlines and the cycle must begin again.
When it comes to public discussions of repeat predatory offenders and the exploitative systems in which they thrive, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Such frank conversations about abusive crimes by men in powerful positions were not happening in previous decades—the fact that I am even writing this piece, the fact there are dozens of other pieces like this posted every week, the fact that we have other similarly charged celebrities to compare with each new case… It would have been revolutionary to the media landscapes of the past. I cannot forget that kind of progress. Thanks to the courage of the survivors, the alleged abusive behavior is flagged and a criminal investigation is under way. That’s not nothing.
Yet there are parts of the Sean Combs investigation that are infuriatingly interchangeable from other stories about abusive men like him: the arrest and massive federal investigation comes after literally years of allegations, allegations which would be enough to disrupt the livelihood of an “ordinary” (re: non-famous) individual. Allegations are reported mostly by women since the abusers mostly target women. There are staff members, coworkers, executives, investors, and other organized safeguards to cover up and cushion them from consequence—whole systems are working to keep power imbalances in place among genders, races, economic classes, and so on.
Sean Combs’s indictment and the ensuing media frenzy might seem monotonous at this point. Repetitious. We’ve seen it before. We know how it ends—or, rather, how it doesn’t end, how there is always another perpetrator working in plain sight, another chain of abuse, another string of ignored or downplayed reports, another victim.
We can’t afford to let these reports become monotonous. When headlines about violence become unremarkable—uninteresting, even—we will not notice when all our surfaces are wallpapered in them. As distressing as it might be, we ought to treat each one of these stories as significant and unacceptable… because the acts and abuses themselves are unacceptable.
Let me tell you why the Sean Combs indictment is different.
What is the Adult Survivors Act?
In May of 2022, New York State enacted the Adult Survivors Act, a piece of legislation which amended state law to temporarily lift the statute of limitations for sexual offences. This gave alleged victims a one-year period, from November 2022 to November 2023, to file civil suits for sexual assault or harassment against alleged attackers.
More than 3,000 suits were filed during this lookback window. Nearly half of these claims name the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision as defendant, meaning many formerly and currently imprisoned inmates of New York’s correctional facilities allege sexual assault by guards and other jail or prison staff. Around 300 of these suits were filed against New York hospitals or healthcare providers. Suits were filed against Donald Trump, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Jamie Foxx, Axl Rose, Bill Cosby, and other private defendants who are also celebrities.
What Happened to Cassie Ventura?
Casandra Ventura, an ex-girlfriend of Sean Combs, filed a suit against Combs in November of 2023 during this lookback window. Ventura alleged that Combs repeatedly sexually assaulted, physically abused, and sexually trafficked her during their decade-long relationship; while she and Combs settled the suit out of court less than 48 hours after it was initially filed, a second woman sued Combs in November of 2023 alleging sexual assault. And thus began the domino effect of others coming forward with their claims against Combs—reminder, we are up to eleven alleged victims now, and those are just the ones willing to face the legal gauntlet and report.
McMullan via Getty Images
What the Adult Survivors Act produced was not only a chance to file reports for victims who had missed their statutory window of opportunity to do so, but a sense that the legal system was ready and listening. It established the claims of alleged victims as not only warranted but wanted—note this does not mean that all allegations were taken as truth; the legal system still chugged on, requiring evidence, testimonies, and verdicts. But a provision lifting the statute of limitations in order for alleged victims to seek civil suits against their alleged abusers feels like a lifeline when the legal system usually belittles these claimants, if not outright ignoring them.
Is P Diddy in Jail?
Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, who is presiding over the case against Combs, has denied Combs bail twice, citing Combs as both a flight risk and a danger to claimants and others involved in the case, as Combs has already contacted and allegedly intimidated potential witnesses. Other celebrity abusers who have been charged with sexually violent crimes have (frustratingly) been allowed to post bail and await trial comfortably at home. For someone as wealthy and influential as Combs to be held in custody and denied the privilege of writing a check so he can go back to his luxurious mansions, his private jet, and his luxurious lifestyle… it’s unprecedented. Hopefully it’s not the last time we see it.
The indictment against Combs is not the first of its kind. Like other cases before it, the more salacious details of the investigation have inspired a flurry of social media posts—reports of hundreds of sex toys and bottles of baby oil, a fifty-foot-long bed, celebrity guest lists of Combs’s infamous “white parties,” and more. But I’d implore readers to consider what these details actually mean instead of focusing on their (admittedly) exciting lasciviousness: on its own, possession of sex accessories is not immoral. Neither are large raucous parties. Depending on your own personal beliefs, excessive drinking, group sexual encounters, or engaging with sex workers are not immoral acts, either. While it’s tantalizing to see the curtains pulled back on the racy goings-on of the rich and the famous, the allegations against Combs are not about baby oil. They are about sexual coercion. Trafficking. Possession of illegal drugs and firearms. Nonconsensual pornography. They are about a long history of sexual violence, a pattern of crimes, a belief that Sean Combs is entitled to his own sexual pleasure at any cost. Combine these patterns with the baby oil—and you’ve got a story we’re all too familiar with.
Maybe someday we’ll believe the very first woman who steps forward with an allegation, and then the next story can end much quicker than this one did.
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Lindsay Eagar is the author of several novels for children and adults, including HOUR OF THE BEES and most recently THE PATRON THIEF OF BREAD. She lives in the mountains of Utah with her husband and their two daughters.