The disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs had the opportunity to settle the singer Cassie Ventura’s accusations of rape and other physical abuse before she went public – but he refused, leading to his professional downfall and likely setting the stage for federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against him, according to a new podcast.
That fateful decision from Combs is explored in the opener of Law & Crime’s The Rise and Fall of Diddy, a three-episode series that is scheduled to debut on Wednesday.
As the series recounts, Ventura and Combs ended a decade-long, on-and-off relationship in October 2018. She later married and had a child with a personal trainer whom Combs had initially hired for her, Alex Fine, while largely avoiding speaking about her ex.
But then New York’s passage of a law that temporarily suspended filing deadlines for lawsuits seeking civil damages over years-old sexual assault cases prompted Ventura to contact Combs again.
“She came to him before she filed [any] lawsuit and said, ‘I believed I was wronged by you,’” the attorney and legal commentator Donte Mills says on the show, a preview of which was provided to the Guardian. “And she gave him an opportunity to settle the case before she brought [a] lawsuit.”
Mills, presented on the Rise and Fall of Diddy as a legal insider with intimate knowledge of the case, added: “And I know that both Sean Combs’ attorneys and Cassie’s attorneys were in conversation, in talks, to see if they can resolve the lawsuit, but they were not able to and those settlement negotiations fell through.”
The fallout from those unsuccessful talks was volcanic. Hours before the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act in late November 2023, Ventura filed a lawsuit asserting that Combs raped her as well as otherwise abused her physically, mentally and emotionally, as the Rise and Fall of Diddy notes.
She also maintained that Combs forced her to engage in intercourse with male sex workers, encounters that were recorded on video.
It took about a day for the three-time Grammy winner to agree to pay an undisclosed sum to settle Ventura’s claims out of court. But that response from Combs failed to defuse a wave of lawsuits that followed from other people with similar allegations.
Federal authorities building a sex-trafficking case against Combs raided his properties in Los Angeles and Miami in March. In May, CNN had obtained and published a hotel security camera video showing Combs battering Ventura in 2016, exposing his denials that he had done anything wrong as lies.
Ultimately, in September, authorities arrested Combs on charges that he would force sex-trafficking victims to participate in group sex acts with his associates while he recorded video and masturbated. The charging documents labeled those encounters “freak offs”. And the documents said the “freak offs” were so physically exhausting for Combs and his victims – who, among other abuses, were coerced into ingesting drugs – that all typically required intravenous fluids to rehydrate afterwards.
“I truly believe the downfall of Sean Combs … began [with] the Cassie Ventura lawsuit,” Mills says on the Rise and Fall of Diddy, whose host is Law & Crime anchor Jesse Weber and which is being released to subscribers of the Wondery+ platform.
The Guardian has sought comment from publicists for Combs. Combs, who turned 55 in November, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
He is awaiting the outcome of the case against him in federal custody. On 27 November, Combs was denied bail a third time, with federal judge Arun Subramanian describing him as a “serious risk” for witness tampering.
Prosecutors had previously alleged that Combs tried to reach out to prospective witnesses and influence public opinion while in jail waiting for his case to be resolved.
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
