Left: WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA — FEBRUARY 8: Sean Combs, Diddy, at The FOX season finale viewing party for The Four: Battle For Stardom at Delilah in West Hollywood, California on February 8, 2018. (Credit: Faye Sadou/MediaPunch /IPX). Right: FILE — Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. appears in court, Jan. 22, 2020, in New York. (Alec Tabak/The Daily News via AP, File, Pool)
As details slowly emerge about the alleged Homeland Security raids on homes owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs on both coasts, a lawsuit reveals bombshell accusations against the music mogul for alleged sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and grooming.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. has sued Combs for racketeering — including sex trafficking and drug distribution — as well as sexual assault and sexual harassment. He names Combs, his son Justin Dior Combs, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., and others as defendants. According to an amended complaint filed Monday, Jones was recruited in 2022 by Combs to produce several songs on an R&B album, and after he agreed — and lived with Combs for months between September 2022 and September 2023 — “his life has been detrimentally impacted ever since.”
Jones, the complaint says, “personally witnessed and secured irrefutable evidence of” several illegal acts, including:
a. The acquisition, use, and distribution of ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and mushrooms,
b. The displaying and distribution of unregistered illegal firearms,
c. Mr. Combs providing laced alcoholic beverages to minors (LA home July 2023) and sex workers at his homes in California, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, and Saint Barthélemy,
[. . .]
e. [Combs’ son] Christian Combs drugging and sexually assaulting a woman
[. . .]
i. Rapper (REDACTED) on Mr. Combs yacht consorting with underaged girls, sex workers, and
j. R&B Singer (REDACTED) in Mr. Combs Los Angeles home consorting with underaged girls and sex workers.
Also on Monday, Homeland Security agents reportedly carried out searches at two of Combs’ homes — one in Miami and one in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times. The raids were allegedly connected to sex trafficking allegations, the newspaper reported.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
According to Jones’ lawsuit, Combs forced him to engage in sex acts and carry and distribute illicit drugs on Combs’ behalf, although Jones wanted no part of it, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Jones had no desire to solicit sex workers,” the complaint says. “Mr. Combs used many tactics to maintain dominion and control of Mr. Jones. Mr. Combs used his power and influence, to intimidate and force Mr. Jones into soliciting and sleeping with these women.”
Jones says that he believes he was drugged during a party with Combs before “waking up at 4 am the following morning naked with a sex worker sleeping next to him.”
Jones accuses Combs of using “many tactics to maintain dominion and control of Mr. Jones,” including promising him a Grammy, ownership of property worth millions, and access to music executives.
Sometimes, however, Combs would “switch up his approach” in alarming ways, Jones says.
“He would go from promising Mr. Jones the world to threatening Mr. Jones with physical harm,” the complaint says. “Mr. Combs threatened to eat Mr. Jones face and informed Mr. Jones that he is willing to kill his mother, Janice Combs, if he must in order to get what he wants, so he wouldn’t think twice to harm Mr. Jones.”
Jones also accuses Combs of engaging in sex acts with “underage girls.” He also allegedly tried to “pass off” Jones to Gooding — who himself has faced sexual assault allegations — for sex after “grooming him.”
“As evidenced by a video, of which screenshots are embedded below, Cuba Gooding Jr. began touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones’ legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks and his shoulders,” the complaint says. “Mr. Jones was extremely uncomfortable, and proceeded to lean away from Mr. Gooding Jr. He rejected his advances and Mr. Gooding Jr. did not stop until Mr. Jones forcibly pushed him away.”
The complaint includes a screenshot of a video of the alleged incident.
Rodney Jones, left, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (image via federal complaint).
Jones says that another defendant, Combs’ chief of staff Kristina Khorram, “is the Ghislaine Maxwell to Sean Combs Jeffrey Epstein” — a stark comparison to the woman convicted of procuring and grooming girls for sexual abuse by Epstein, the wealthy financier who died in prison while awaiting charges of running a sex-trafficking operation.
“Khorram wanted Mr. Combs’ drug of choice immediately ready when he asked for it,” the complaint says. “Khorram ordered sex workers for Mr. Combs. On one occasion, she sent Mr. Jones a text message requesting that he call a particular sex worker. We have the message.”
Khorram also “ordered and distributed ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and mushrooms to Mr. Combs and his celebrity guests, who were present on his rented yacht and in his homes in LA and Miami … on multiple occasions, Defendant Khorram forced him to carry Mr. Combs’ drug pouch against his will. The pouches were always black, and several of Mr. Combs’ staff carried black Prada pouches.”
Jones accuses music executive Lucian Charles Grainge of being complicit in the alleged abuse.
Grainge, the complaint says, “in his capacity as CEO of UMG, Motown Records, and Universal Music Group (“the collective”), is 100% liable for the actions of Sean Combs, and by extension, [the other defendants] as they were acting in their capacities as the collectives’ General Business Partners when they committed the acts detailed below. The collective provided [the defendants] with unfettered access to financial resources in the form of wire transfers, direct payments, and invoice reimbursements and failed to adequately investigate, supervise, and or monitor where the money was being used, who was using the money, and what the money was being used for.”
That financial support, Jones alleges, was “the lifeline that spearheaded and maintained” the defendants’ “depraved actions.”
The lawsuit, in perhaps another implicit reference to Epstein, says Combs used his friendships with members of the British monarchy to lure future victims into his trap.
“Affiliation with and/or general business partnerships with Mr. Combs garnered legitimacy, immense success, and access to top and emerging artists, celebrities, famous athletes, political figures, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal and Prince Harry,” the amended complaint says.
Jones’ lawsuit is one of several complaints filed against Combs in recent months. As Law&Crime previously reported, R&B singer Cassie sued Combs in November, accusing him of sex trafficking, rape, and years of controlling behavior — including blowing up the car of a perceived romantic rival. In the complaint, Cassie said Combs physically abused her, raped her, and forced her to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes as Combs recorded the encounters.
That lawsuit was settled later that month.
Other accusers have come forward saying that Combs either sexually abused them or forced them to be sexually abused by others as minors, according to Rolling Stone.
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