HSI confirmed in a statement that it “executed law enforcement actions” in New York as part of an ongoing investigation, along with teams in Los Angeles and Miami.
Homeland Security officials seized phones from Combs in Miami before he was scheduled to depart for a trip to the Bahamas, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the warrant. Combs was in the Miami area when authorities executed the searches, sources said. It is not clear if Combs made the trip as planned.
Representatives for Combs, 54, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Monday.
Series of allegations, lawsuits
News of a federal investigation comes after public scrutiny of Combs’ behavior after his former romantic partner, Cassie, accused him of physically and sexually abusing her for years. She made the allegations in a lawsuit filed late last year in New York under the New York Adult Survivors Act, which offered a one-year window for adult victims of sexual assault to come forward with civil claims regardless of the statute of limitations.
Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, settled with Combs on Nov. 17, the day after the suit was filed on terms that have not been disclosed.
Since then, three other women have come forward with lawsuits in the Southern District of New York alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Combs. Two of the women said they were teenagers at the time of the alleged assaults.
Douglas Wigdor, who represents Ventura and a Jane Doe who filed suit, said in a statement that the searches and investigation were hopefully the beginning of a process that “will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
“We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law,” Wigdor said.
An attorney for Joi Dickerson-Neal, one of Combs’ accusers, declined to…
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