Janice Small Combs, the mother music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has come out to publicly defend her son amid serious allegations of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
In a statement released through her attorney, Natlie G. Figgers, Janice Combs says that while her son “made mistakes in the past,” she does not believe he should be subjected to what she described as a “public lynching.”
“It is heartbreaking to see my son judged not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies,” she said in the statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter (THR).
“To bear witness what seems to be like a public lynching of my son before he has had the opportunity to prove his innocence is a pain too unbearable to put into words. Like every human being, my son deserves to have his day in court, to finally share his side, and to prove his innocence.”
File/Janice Small Combs (Puffy Combs’ mother) walks the runway at the Baby Phat Lingerie fashion show at the 4th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival launch party. The event took place in the Sony Atrium in New York City. (Scott Gries/ImageDirect/Getty)
Sean “Diddy” Combs was indicted in September for federal sex trafficking crimes, with prosecutors alleging that he cultivated an empire that included widespread sexual abuse, forced labor, and other sordid crimes.
“The indictment accuses Combs of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes that used his ‘power and prestige’ for ”sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice,” the Associated Press noted at the time.
“It describes the inducement of female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed ‘Freak Offs’ that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days and require IVs to recover from, the indictment said, and Combs used his employees as though they were a film crew,” it added.
File/Rapper Sean (Puffy) Combs and his mum, Janice, at a lingerie show at the fourth annual Urbanworld Film Festival launch party at the Sony Center. (Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
In her letter, Janice addressed the accusations from Cassie Ventura, who accused Diddy of abuse, which he denied until video evidence surfaced of him beating her in a hotel hallway.
“My son may not have been entirely truthful about certain things, such as denying he has ever gotten violent with an ex-girlfriend when the hotel’s surveillance showed otherwise,” she said.
“Sometimes, the truth and a lie become so closely intertwined that it becomes terrifying to admit one part of the story, especially when that truth is outside the norm or is too complicated to be believed. This is why I believe my son’s civil legal team opted to settle the ex-girlfriend’s lawsuit instead of contesting it until the end, resulting in a ricochet effect as the federal government used this decision against my son by interpreting it as an admission of guilt.”
Janice said her son’s lie about his past abuse does not therefore make him guilty of the “repulsive allegations and the grave charges leveled against him.”
“Many individuals who were wrongfully convicted and later exonerated had their freedom taken from them not because they were guilty of the crimes they were accused of, but because they didn’t fit the image of what this society considers to be a ‘good person,’” she said. “History has showed us how individuals can be wrongfully convicted due to their past actions or mistakes.”
Janice concluded that the “lies” directed at her son are “motivated by those seeking a financial gain, and not justice.”
“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,” she said. “False allegations of sexual assault thwart true victims of sexual violence from getting the justice they deserve. To make matters worse, the federal government is now using these lies to prosecute my son. This injustice has been unbearable for our family. The worst part of this ordeal is watching my beloved son be stripped of his dignity, not for what he did, but for what people choose to believe about him.”
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