Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ has been beneath scrutiny since his former romantic accomplice Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura filed a lawsuit in opposition to him in November 2023, accusing him of rape and repeated bodily abuse. In the months main as much as September 2024, when the disgraced music mogul was in the end arrested and indicted, Combs turned the topic of a number of different formal complaints. It’s all been downhill for the report govt who was as soon as seen as a “gatekeeper” of the music trade, as Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones Jr referred to as him in an interview.
The dramatic reversal of destiny has put dozens of recorded situations and moments from his historical past to rise just like the excessive tide once more because the web digs into these blasts from the previous. With the continuing federal probe, Puff Daddy can also be the main focus of on-line investigation as sleuth netizens proceed to maintain a watch on his historical past chart like hawks.
As contentious because the discourse surrounding Diddy is, incendiary conspiracy theories have additionally taken flight. One of the most recent ones to take social media by storm is Dr Umar Johnson’s suggestion that the timing of Combs’ authorized troubles blowing out of the water is questionable. He firmly believes the embattled public determine has been made to face in as a fall man for corrupt politicians.
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Johnson, an American Black activist, psychologist and self-proclaimed pan-Africanist, lately took to social media to voice his ideas on Diddy’s arrest and intercourse trafficking probe. Various handles on X, previously Twitter, later broadly circulated the video.
New Diddy conspiracy concept: Dr Umar Johnson initiatives Sean Combs is getting used as a “distraction” from the US election
As he begins questioning the timing of the arising subject at hand, Dr Umar asks, “You know why they gave Black individuals Puff Daddy throughout election season?”
His reply quickly follows: “The purpose they determined to serve up Sean Puffy Combs just a few weeks earlier than the election is that they wish to distract you from the legal guidelines they’re passing. They wish to distract you from the insurance policies they’re passing. They wish to distract you from the initiatives they’re implementing. This is a distraction.”
He goes on, “Because they know Black individuals like to see Black individuals disgraced, humiliated and destroyed. They stated throw them certainly one of their very own. Let’s lynch one other n*gro today- to ship all of the Black individuals over right here whereas we handle enterprise over right here.”
Johnson claimed that the lawmakers don’t need Black individuals to concentrate to their very own actions as a result of they’re planning one thing “actually actually huge.”
He continues that whereas there’s nothing unsuitable with having conversations about Diddy, the drastic shift of media’s deal with the music mogul has additionally directed “Black Instagram, Black Facebook, Black TikTook” and different such platforms to submerge themselves in a pool of gossip.
“Sean Combs is a distraction,” he reiterated a number of instances throughout his prolonged tirade. “In any time you see one thing like this, it’s best to ask your self: What are they making an attempt to distract African individuals away from.”
Per Johnson’s perception, certainly one of these items is that “Kamala Harris and Donald Trump don’t have any agenda for African individuals.”
The activist maintained that earlier than the media served Diddy “on a platter,” individuals had been asking the presidential hopefuls from each front-running political events what they’d in thoughts for the long run.
Calculating the hole between the day of Combs’ arrest (September 16) and Election Day (November 5), Dr Umar additionally raised doubts about why the rapper was arrested precisely seven weeks earlier than D-Day. “Why did they do it now? To cease the Black political motion.”
Observing that it hasn’t even been a full week for the reason that Bad Boy Records founder was arrested and persons are emotionally invested in his case by way of and thru, Johnson stated that politicians had already succeeded in snatching everybody’s consideration away from the election discourse.
“You have taken your consideration fully off the Black agenda from 2024, and you’ve got put it on Puff. You have been outsmarted. You have been out-manoeuvred. You have been out-strategised by the White energy construction as soon as once more.”
Switching his focus to the well-known proprietor of Playboy journal, Hugh Hefner, Dr Umar charged forward, that he had a “dwelling ‘Freak Off’ 24 hours a day, 7 days every week” on the Playboy mansion, however “no person stated a phrase.” He then in contrast his case to that of Diddy, who had “intermittent ‘Freak Offs.’”
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Johnson lastly concluded the message: “This is nothing however a distraction from the election. This is nothing however a distraction from Kamala Harris’ procrastination.”
Although just a few agreed together with his concept, others referred to as him out for this “whataboutism.”
“Bro has misplaced the plot solely,” somebody commented. Someone else identified that the conflict of each points’ timelines had nothing to do with the erasure of conversations across the election. “I’m wondering if he realises that you may take note of a couple of factor,” one other replied. Meanwhile, a 3rd consumer believed Johnson and dubbed Diddy the “fall man for the remainder of the corrupt politicians concerned.”
In any case, Johnson’s argument largely portrayed Diddy’s arrest as the autumn of a Black man within the highlight. However, he fully turned away from referencing the fees listed in opposition to the Revolt founder within the federal indictment unsealed on Tuesday, September 17.
Dr Umar Johnson beforehand understated allegations in opposition to Diddy
Not too way back, Johnson posted the same video addressing the Diddy probe. Despite mentioning the formal allegations levelled in opposition to the rapper, Johnson’s remarks in some way managed to downplay Combs’ alleged misconduct.
“Sean Puff Combs’ federal costs have little if something to do with home abuse or paedophilia. His main intercourse crime, federally, is he’s being accused of transporting ladies throughout state strains to have interaction in intercourse– what we name prostitution. Not Cassie, not the freak offs, not underage ladies. Prostitution.”
Despite foregrounding that whereas he doesn’t assist prostitution both, he provides it’s the “oldest feminine enterprise on the planet Earth… It is the sexual trafficking that Sean Puffy Combs is being accused of, not home abuse, not freak offs, not stomping out Cassie, not participating in intercourse with underage ladies. It is interstate sexual trafficking.”
Fact-checking Dr Umar Johnson’s narrative
Going again to the complete indictment laid out in opposition to the Bad Boy for Life, one can see that he’s been accused of three counts – racketeering conspiracy; intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud or coercion; and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. However, when one zooms in to learn the detailed description of those three counts on the 14-page indictment, the subtext involves mild that won’t in any other case come to thoughts beneath broader phrases.
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The overview actually begins with the primary pointer highlighting that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced ladies and others round him to fulfil his sexual wishes, shield his repute, and conceal his conduct. To accomplish that, COMBS relied on the workers, assets, and affect of the multi-faceted enterprise empire that he led and controlled–creating a legal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and tried to have interaction in, amongst different crimes, intercourse trafficking, compelled labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
The docs additionally accuse him of participating in a “persistent and pervasive sample of abuse towards ladies and different people.” Moreover, this abuse was, “at instances, verbal, emotional, bodily and sexual.” As Combs “manipulated” ladies to have interaction in “extremely orchestrated” sexual actions with male business intercourse employees, he would generally guarantee their participation by, “amongst different issues, acquiring and distributing narcotics to them, controlling their careers, leveraging his monetary helps and threatening to chop off the identical, and utilizing intimidation and violence.”
Last we checked, the United Nations’ official web site describes home abuse as usually manifesting “a sample of abusive behaviour towards an intimate accomplice in a relationship or household relationship, the place the abuser exerts energy and management over the sufferer.
Domestic abuse could be psychological, bodily, financial or sexual in nature.” Such incidents might even lead to severe bodily harm or demise.
And what’s Combs additionally accused of? Assaulting “ladies by, amongst different issues, hanging, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.” Although the indictment doesn’t straight name-drop Cassie, it clearly signifies that a few of these assaults had been witnessed by others, together with the one occasion at a Los Angeles lodge in or about March 2016. The official pages additionally state that the rapper tried to bribe the workers member to make sure silence. The incident presumably being cited right here is the one which CNN uncovered earlier this yr by sharing a years-old surveillance video displaying Diddy savagely attacking his then-girlfriend. The particulars of the incident additionally mirror the complaints listed in Cassie’s lawsuit filed in November.
Further contradicting Dr Umar’s claims, the indictment additionally laid down that “Combs’ violence was… not restricted to those ladies. It extends to his staff, witnesses to his abuse, and others.” Moreover, the indictment undoubtedly mentions the time period “Freak Offs,” moreover accusing Diddy of filming movies of victims participating in intercourse acts. After pushing them to take part in these performances, “he maintained management over his victims” by way of varied means. The costs add, “During and separate from Freak Offs, Combs, amongst different issues, hit, kicked, threw objects at, and dragged victims, at instances, by their hair.” These incidents ultimately resulted in “accidents that took days or perhaps weeks to heal.” And this isn’t even all of it.