Janice Combs, the mother of Bad Boy Records founder and accused sex trafficker Sean “Diddy” Combs, spoke out for the first time since her son’s arrest in September—comparing the former record executive’s arrest for federal sex trafficking charges to a “public lynching.”
In a statement shared with Local 10 News in Miami, Combs said her son was being “judged not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies.”
“My son is not the monster they have painted him to be,” Combs said in a statement shared by Fort Lauderdale-based Attorney Natlie G. Figgers.
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“Watching the world make jokes and laugh at my son’s life crumbling before our eyes is something I can never forget,” Combs added. “It is truly agonizing to watch the world turn against my son so quickly and over lies and misconceptions, without ever hearing his side or affording him the opportunity to present his side.”
Federal prosecutors unsealed a 14-page indictment charging the disgraced hip hop mogul with a litany of crimes, including sex trafficking and racketeering. He has since been jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial.
But Janice Combs insisted on her son’s innocence, asking fans not to judge the hip-hop mogul before he has a chance to “speak his truth and be vindicated.”
Diddy’s ex-girlfriend and former Bad Boy R&B singer Cassie filed a lawsuit against the mogul in November 2023, accusing him of rape and abuse for years. Diddy’s lawyers announced they were settling with Cassie only one day after the suit was filed—but were also quick to note that his settlement was not an admission of guilt.
But Diddy’s mother accused federal prosecutors of doing exactly that. “The federal government used this decision against my son by interpreting it as an admission of guilt,” she wrote.
Combs admitted that her son made mistakes—even directly referencing the bombshell video released earlier this year showing the record executive physically assaulting Cassie in a hotel in 2016.
Since the federal indictment was unsealed in September, lawyers representing as many as 120 other accusers said they were filing lawsuits against Diddy. Combs did not reference any other accusers by name, but seemed to comment on the flurry of legal action.
“These individuals saw how quickly my son’s civil legal team settled his ex-girlfriend’s lawsuit, so they believe they can receive a quick payday by falsely accusing my son,” Combs wrote. “False allegations of sexual assault thwart true victims of sexual violence from getting the justice they deserve.”
