A new lawsuit accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl at an after-party for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards with an unnamed male celebrity participating in the alleged assault while an unnamed female celebrity watched. The lawsuit is part of a wave of new sexual-assault complaints against Combs filed Sunday by five Jane and John Does in federal court in New York, describing separate incidents that allegedly took place between 2000 and 2022. The accusers are represented by Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who has been soliciting clients through a hotline number and filed several other claims against Combs last week.
Combs has denied all the allegations. “The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity,” the rapper’s lawyer said in a statement. “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”
More than a dozen people have accused Combs of sexual violence since his former partner, the singer Cassie, filed a shocking federal lawsuit in November 2023 accusing him of rape and physical abuse. Combs denied Cassie’s claims, and the two quickly settled the lawsuit. The embattled music mogul has since been indicted on federal sex-trafficking and racketeering charges. He is currently in jail and will stand trial in May 2025.
In the lawsuit filed on Sunday, Jane Doe says that she was 13 when she tried to attend the VMAs on September 7, 2000. She did not have a ticket for the awards show, so she approached several limousine drivers to find out whether there was a way she could get into the event. The lawsuit claims that a driver who allegedly worked for Combs said Doe “fit what Diddy was looking for,” and that he invited her to an after-party. Doe says the man drove her to the party later that evening and that she was given a non-disclosure agreement to sign when she got there. (The lawsuit says she did not receive a copy.) Doe says she was offered a drink, after which she “began to feel woozy and lightheaded.” She found an empty bedroom where she could lie down, according to the lawsuit, but soon after, Combs came into the room with an unnamed “male and female celebrity.” Doe alleges that the male celebrity raped her as the female celebrity watched, and Combs later raped her while the other two celebrities watched. Doe says that after the assault, she grabbed her clothes and shoes and roamed the house naked while she looked for an exit. The lawsuit says the rape led to Doe falling into a deep depression, which continues to impact her 24 years later.
Two other plaintiffs have claimed that Combs assaulted them when they were minors, accusations that he denies. One unnamed woman sued the producer in December 2023, alleging that she was 17 when Combs and two other men gang-raped her at his Manhattan recording studio in 2003. A John Doe also alleged that he was only 16 when Combs sexually assaulted him at one of his infamous “White Parties” in 1998.