Rapper Sean Combs, better known by his stage name Diddy, was indicted in New York and arrested on Monday on unspecified allegations.
In a statement to the press, Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo said, “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
Agnifilo claimed that while Combs was “an imperfect person,” he was “not [a] criminal,” and said his client had “been nothing but cooperative” with investigators.
“Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts,” Agnifilo concluded. “These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
As part of an investigation into suspected sex trafficking, federal investigators raided several of Combs’s houses earlier this year. CNN also received surveillance footage in May that purportedly showed Combs hitting his ex-girlfriend.
The rapper has been accused of sexual assault by several women.
Senior legal expert for CNN Elie Honig responded to the news on CNN NewsNight by saying, “Based on the attorney’s statement, based on our reporting, this is a federal prosecution. It’s not a state prosecution. The fact that he’s being processed in Manhattan tells me that’s the Southern District of New York,” the speaker said, going on to mention that Sam Bankman-Fried and former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez had just been charged by the Southern District of New York.
He continued:
The other thing that we do know is a grand jury has indicted Sean Combs, meaning they found probable cause that he committed at least one federal crime. Now, as to what happens next, there will be likely tomorrow or within the next couple of days, but usually in the SDNY you try to do it the next day, there will be an arraignment, meaning Sean Combs will appear in court with his lawyers. There are no cameras in federal court. He will be advised of the charges against him and he will almost certainly enter a not guilty plea, but the key thing to watch for is then we’ll have the question of bail. Will prosecutors agree to let him out on bail? Will prosecutors asked the judge to lock him up pending trial? That could end up in a contentious argument. So these are things that are going to play out over the next 24 or 48 hours.
Concluding his analysis of the arrest, Honig added, “With respect to the charges themselves, it’s important to know, we’ve all seen that video, but assault and sexual assault are not federal crimes. Those are prosecuted in state court. So what I expect to see when we see this indictment is some sort of crime with some element of organization to it. Sex trafficking, something along those lines, if it’s based on some of the allegations we’ve heard.”
