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(NewsNation) — As the saying goes, “When the chips are down, you find out who your friends are” … and apparently, Sean “Diddy” Combs doesn’t have any. Or at least any who aren’t on his payroll or who will publicly defend him, my sources tell me.
On Monday, federal agents searched two properties belonging to Combs in Los Angeles and Miami as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities based in New York.
The raids come after Combs has faced several sexual assault lawsuits in recent months.
Combs attorney Aaron Dyer released a statement Tuesday saying any speculation about the raids “leads to premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
Dyer also slammed the “gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed,” but a source told me, “Listen, he has guards at his (homes), and they are armed. He is known to have guns. He also has cameras in every room of his Los Angeles home — they wanted the tapes before they could be destroyed.”
Before the raid, Combs was mired in several lawsuits alleging sexual trafficking and misconduct in a span of over 30 years, from the early 1990s to last year. He recently settled a lawsuit with his former artist and girlfriend Cassie, who said he raped and trafficked her for over a decade.
But what has also been shocking is how all of Combs’ former friends have seemingly disappeared and refused to publicly (and privately) come out and support him.
Combs’ longtime A-list pal Jay-Z has notably been silent, so much so that fellow rapper 50 Cent trolled him for it in several Instagram posts. One featured Jay-Z’s face in a missing poster on a milk carton, noting, “Anybody seen Jay LOL puff said the [emojis] ain’t answering his phone. LOL @bransoncognac @lecheminduroi,” while another post had a pic of Jay Z waving, saying, “Here is jay z last reported seen waving at puffy jet LOL @bransoncognac @lecheminduroi.”
Fifty is also doing a documentary on Combs — “Diddy Do It?” — which is being produced by his company, G Unit Films. Insiders say the doc will be “damning,” and 50 has the money to pay people to participate. His G Unit is also producing a doc on the Gilgo Beach murders and is paying the family of accused serial killer Rex Heuermann $1 million for their participation.
Also quiet are his former proteges Justin Bieber and Usher, who both attended his “Puffy Flavor Camp” where young artists would be sent to hang out with Combs and his crew to be immersed in the lifestyle.
In 2016, Usher talked about his time at the camp with Howard Stern and said, “I got a chance to see some things. I went there to see the lifestyle — and I saw it. … I don’t know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at. It was pretty wild.”
Usher also told Rolling Stone in 2004 about the camp: “(Combs) introduced me to a totally different set of s— — sex, specifically. … There was always girls around. You’d open a door and see somebody doing it or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen.”
When Stern asked Usher if he would ever send his own kids to the camp, Usher shot back, “Hell, no.”
Meanwhile, Combs’ former flame, Jennifer Lopez, now happily married to Ben Affleck, says in her documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told”: “There were people in my life who said ‘I love you’ and then didn’t do things that were kind of in line with the word ‘love.’ … You have to hit rock bottom where you’re in situations so uncomfortable and so painful that you finally go, ‘I don’t want this anymore.’ … Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun. I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God, but I’ve definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things … rough … disrespectful.”
I revealed two weeks ago that she was talking about Combs when she said this.
Other longtime friends, including L.A. Reid, Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, Will Smith, Pharrell Williams and DJ Khaled, have all remained silent, some because they not only don’t want to be dragged into the sordid fray but also because music industry source told me, “People don’t want their own skeletons to be revealed.”
In the early 2000s, I covered the music industry (among other entertainment areas) for the New York Post’s Page Six, and the rap industry, in particular, was fond of calling female dancers “chickenheads” who would be passed around from shoot to shoot between artists.
The term ‘chickenhead’ is used in many rap songs by Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, 2Pac, Busta Rhymes, The Notorious B.I.G. and more.
“A lot of women were passed around — and a lot of men don’t want to have the public reminded of that,” the music industry insider said.
But while Diddy’s friends are quiet, his enemies are speaking loud and clear.
Former Bad Boy artist Mark Curry told NewsNation: “It’s just the chickens coming home to roost. This is just what happens. It’s karma.”
Meanwhile, Aubrey O’Day, whose former band was managed by Combs and his label Bad Boy Records, posted, “What you sow, you shall reap” to her Instagram stories over a headline about the raid on Combs’ homes.