A former member of Sean Combs’s Danity Kane girl group says the federal sex-trafficking charges filed against the disgraced music mogul are “a win for women all over the world”.
The singer Aubrey O’Day is not among several women who filed civil claims against Combs alleging rape and other physical violence before an indictment unsealed on Tuesday charged him in graphic terms with a conspiracy involving forced, days-long group sex acts that he described as “freak offs”. But her reaction is notable because she has been an outspoken critic of the Bad Boy entertainment star and executive long before he was indicted.
And she has accused him of trying to buy her silence with a publishing deal before then threatening to strip away her publishing rights so that she would not speak about the mistreatment she has recounted enduring from him.
“The purpose of Justice is to provide an ending and allow us the space to create a new chapter,” O’Day said in a post on X after Combs was arrested in New York on Monday night but before the details of the charges were released.
“Women never get this. I feel validated. Today is a win for women all over the world, not just me. Things are finally changing.”
The vocalist also told TMZ: “I never thought I would see this day. We all buried this inside of us in order to be able to keep going. And not just me, but victims you don’t even know yet. We are all processing what that type of vindication can actually feel like now. Every conversation I’ve had with victims last night has been beyond moving on all levels.”
Meanwhile, the singer Foxy Brown, who had several hits on Combs’s Bad Boy label, said on social media: “Shit’s about to go down.”
The singer Cassie Ventura, Combs’s former girlfriend who came forward with sexual abuse allegations against him that he quickly settled out of court, has not commented on the charges. An attorney for Ventura – who was recorded on hotel surveillance video being beaten by Combs in 2016, though the footage only became public in May – said in a statement that neither the client nor her lawyer had any comment at the moment.
Several other people have filed lawsuits against Combs alleging sexual violence in the wake of Ventura’s coming forward.
Much of the case against Combs centers on his alleged “freak offs”, which prosecutors describe as orgies involving commercial sex workers and victims – who were forced to take drugs – that were so physically demanding that all “typically received IV fluids to recover” in the aftermath. Combs would direct the encounters, masturbate to them and record video, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors allege Combs and his associates “wielded the power and prestige” of his fame to “intimidate, threaten and lure female victims” into his orbit. Then he used “force, threats of force and coercion” to get them to participate, prosecutors allege in the indictment.
“Victims believed they could not refuse Combs demands without risking their financial or job security,” prosecutors said. “Combs also used the sensitive, embarrassing and incriminating recordings that he made during freak offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of victims.”
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The government also alleges that – faced with exposure of his conduct – Combs and others engaged in bribery, kidnapping and arson to ensure victims as well as witnesses stayed silent.
The indictment said members of Combs’s organization carried firearms – and that he brandished them “to intimidate and threaten others”. He faces charges under federal sex-trafficking laws and a statute barring the transportation of sex workers.
Combs has beaten one criminal case before. In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges – and he served about eight years in prison.
The singer Jennifer Lopez was Combs’s girlfriend at the time of the shooting and was arrested alongside him on weapons and bribery charges. But the charges against her were dropped.
The Guardian has reached out to a publicist for Lopez with a request for comment on Combs’s charges.