Sean 'Diddy' Combs accusers can't be silenced by nondisclosure agreements in trafficking probe: experts
Any potential nondisclosure agreements between Sean "Diddy" Combs and his accusers, or anyone else in his orbit who may have witnessed alleged wrongdoing, would not prevent any of them from speaking with federal investigators eyeing the hip-hop mogul in a sex-trafficking investigation, legal experts say.
"They aren’t bound by anything, so they can sing like a canary," said David Gelman, a New Jersey-based defense attorney and former prosecutor who is following the case. "They can speak because NDAs don’t cover illegal activities."
Combs, the billionaire founder of Bad Boy Records and the Sean John fashion empire, is facing a handful of civil lawsuits alleging sex assault, trafficking and physical abuse while federal investigators have acknowledged that search warrants served on his mansions in Los Angeles and Miami were part of a sex-trafficking probe.
Allegations from the settled lawsuit against Combs brought by his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, known as R&B singer Cassie, could be a potential focus for investigators in the case, said Derrick Parker, New York City's "hip-hop cop."
Parker, who wrote the book "Notorious C.O.P." about his experience in the NYPD's rap-related intelligence unit, played a prominent role in the investigation into Combs after a 1999 nightclub shooting left three people injured.
"She already alleged some criminal acts, right before he settled with her," Parker told Fox News Digital. "They could subpoena her about what she said, how she knew."
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Ventura's lawsuit, although settled out of court the day after she filed it, is fair game for federal investigators and provides a range of potential leads with its explosive allegations.
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In it, she claimed that Combs not only raped her and subjected her to physical abuse but also blew up another man's car, regularly hired prostitutes and forced her to carry his gun and procure drugs.
"Congress also passed a law last year making it illegal to enforce an NDA to prevent a sexual harassment or sexual assault victim from speaking out," said Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles-based trial attorney and former federal prosecutor who has been monitoring the case. "The allegations in a civil complaint are protected as well, which means Diddy can't really do anything to silence his accusers in a court of law."
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Combs' staffers and Bad Boy employees witnessed some of the alleged crimes, according to Ventura's civil complaint. And if those people had NDAs, they would be irrelevant in a federal court, experts tell Fox News Digital.
And in the wake of Ventura's lawsuit, other women and a man have come forward with allegations of their own, and legal experts say more accusers could emerge in the near future.
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"I can’t see the case of just starting a case like this, doing a search warrant, without going all the way through with it. There’s no way," Parker said. "They’re not going to just say, ‘OK, forget about it. You go free. We’re not going to bother you anymore.’ Doesn’t work like that."
Another lawsuit, on behalf of a Jane Doe, alleges she was 17 when a longtime Bad Boy executive and an unnamed "Third Assailant" flew her on a private jet from Detroit to New York City to meet Combs before drugging her and taking turns sexually assaulting her.
Flight logs could supply evidence in the case – and so could any of the witnesses who encountered the entourage that evening, including an unnamed recording artist and her parents who were in a Big Apple music studio when the traffickers allegedly brought her inside, according to the lawsuit.
Despite the federal investigation, Combs has not been charged with a crime and has denied all accusations of wrongdoing. In prior statements, he said the lawsuit with Ventura had been settled on good terms and that some of the other accusers are just looking for "an underserved payday."
"When the feds get involved, they leave no stone unturned," Gelman said.