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Feds want Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ records in sex-trafficking probe

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Federal investigators are seeking telecommunications records involving Sean “Diddy” Combs as part of an investigation into alleged sex trafficking, a source close to the investigation told The Times.

The news comes several days after the Department of Homeland Security served search warrants at Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami estates. The hip-hop mogul has denied any wrongdoing in the sweeping investigation, which includes multiple lawsuits in recent months alleging sexual assault and harassment.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said investigators also have requested flight records linked to Combs.

The musical artist remains in the U.S., according to sources with knowledge of the situation, who said Combs was scheduled on Monday to depart by plane for a spring break vacation with his school-age daughters but delayed the trip after learning of the searches. He still has his passport, they added.

He was spotted playing golf with two of his daughters at a driving range in the Miami area Thursday night, according to reports by the Daily Mail.

But Homeland Security agents on Monday stopped a plane on the ground at an executive airport in Miami, and Miami-Dade police officers who accompanied them arrested Brendan Paul, a man in Combs’ entourage. Authorities say they found cocaine and marijuana-laced candy in his bag. Paul, 25, was described in a recent lawsuit against Combs as a confidant and drug “mule.”

Companies doing business with Combs’ empire also are being issued subpoenas, as first reported by TMZ, including a private charter jet firm and phone provider and computer companies.

On Monday, federal agents seized several electronic devices, including cellphones, according to a source familiar with the investigation. They also disabled Combs’ security system at his Holmby Hills mansion and seized the hard drive, a source told The Times.

But much remains unknown about the case and how close authorities are to determining whether to file criminal charges.

Sources with knowledge of the operation who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it publicly said it appears investigators searching Combs’ Holmby Hills home emptied safes, dismantled electronics and left papers strewn in some rooms.

That tracks with what some legal experts say investigators would need if trying to build a sex-trafficking case against Combs.

Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County sex crimes prosecutor who is now in private law practice, said investigators would likely seek authorization to “search for videos or photographs on any devices connected to the target … anywhere where digital images can be found in connection to sexual conduct that would have been recorded.”

No one has been arrested in connection with the investigation, although two of Combs’ sons were briefly detained on the Holmby Hills property.

The investigation into Combs is being directed by federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York.

It comes after four women filed civil lawsuits accusing Combs of rape, assault and other abuses, dating back three decades. One allegation involves a minor.

A source familiar with Homeland Security’s criminal inquiry said investigators have interviewed some of the people tied to the sex-trafficking allegations in the lawsuits against Combs.

Homeland Security investigates most sex-trafficking operations for the federal government. Legal experts say one possibility why the agency could be involved in this case is because the women involved in the allegations against Combs could be from other countries.

“They have [in the Combs case] convinced one or more federal magistrates they had enough probable cause for one or more search warrants,” said Meghan Blanco, a defense attorney who has handled sex-trafficking cases. “Given the scope of the investigation, it seems they are further along than most investigations.”

Gorin said the allegations involving a minor could be a key focus in the inquiry.

If a minor is moved across state lines for the purpose of sex, “that is enough for at least an argument … of sex trafficking because somebody underage cannot consent,” Gorin said.

“Sex trafficking for adults usually involves some sort of coercion or other restraints,” he said, and can be tougher to prove. Prosecutors would need to show a person “encouraged somebody to engage in sexual activity for money or some other inducement.”

Aaron Dyer, one of Combs’ lawyers, on Tuesday called the raids a “witch hunt” and criticized how they were conducted.

“There was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” Dyer said in a statement.

“This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits. There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations.”



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Texas crime victims liaison pleads guilty to human smuggling with county vehicle

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A Texas crime victims coordinator who was employed by the Starr County District Attorney’s Office has pleaded guilty to using a county vehicle to smuggle immigrants into the United States.

Bernice Garza pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to transport undocumented people within the United States, according to a report from KRGV.

Two others, Magali Rosa and Juan Antonio Charles, were also arrested in connection with the investigation and have pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges, according to the report.

TEXAS CRIME VICTIMS LIAISON ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY USING COUNTY-ISSUED CAR IN HUMAN SMUGGLING SCHEME

Texas human smuggling arrest

A 2015 Chevrolet Traverse with the emblem of the Starr County District Attorney’s Office in Texas. An employee of the office was fired after the car was used in a human smuggling scheme, authorities said. (Victoria County Sheriffs Office)

Garza was arrested in December 2022 after a traffic stop in Victoria County noted that the vehicle registered with the county was making “numerous unauthorized trips to the Houston area,” the criminal complaint said.

Magali Rosa was the driver of the vehicle, according to police, while Garza and Charles were among the passengers in the vehicle.

Police say Rosa tried to argue that Garza was the Starr County district attorney during the stop, though she later confessed to making over 40 smuggling trips from Rio Grande City to Houston in the government vehicle.

Texas

Houston skyline (Reuters/Richard Carson)

FOX NEWS CREW WITNESSES DRAMATIC HUMAN SMUGGLING BUSTS BY TEXAS AUTHORITIES

“This investigation is an example of no one being above the law, and our office taking swift action in eliminating public corruption,” the DA’s office said in a statement after the arrests.

Garza was soon terminated from the DA’s office, while the four migrants who were in the vehicle at the time of the stop were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.

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Sentencing for Garza and Charles was set for Sept. 28, the reporting notes, while sentencing for Magali Rosa is set for June 27.



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At Chaotic Rally in Brooklyn, Police Violently Confront Protesters

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A large protest in Brooklyn against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza erupted into a chaotic scene on Saturday, as the police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and at times confronted them violently.

In videos posted on social media, officers can be seen punching at least three people who were prone on the ground at the demonstration in the Bay Ridge neighborhood. The aggression was corroborated by witnesses. Another protester who was filming the police was tackled and arrested. A police spokesman declined to comment on the officers using force on protesters.

The police said Sunday that 40 people were arrested. They have not released details on the charges the protesters face.

“I saw police indiscriminately grabbing people off the street and the sidewalk,” said Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of Within Our Lifetime, an activist group led by Palestinians that organized the demonstration. “They were grabbing people at random.”

According to the Police Department’s patrol guide, officers must use “only the reasonable force necessary to gain control or custody of a subject.”

In recent years, Within Our Lifetime has put on an annual mid-May rally in Bay Ridge, a neighborhood with a large Arab population, to commemorate what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe” — when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israel’s founding in 1948.

Given the war in Gaza and months of protests in New York, this year’s protest was charged from the start. It started at 2 p.m. at the intersection of Fifth and Bay Ridge Avenues. Within about 25 minutes, a large group of officers arrived and warned protesters to get onto the sidewalk. Those who remained in the street would be arrested, the police told them.

From there, the event alternated between protest marches and standoffs with the police. In one video taken by Katie Smith, an independent journalist, a police commander in a white shirt delivers at least three punches to a person lying on the pavement. In another video she recorded, an officer punches a man who is on the ground at least six times and a white-shirted commander aims a kick at the man, though it is not possible to see if it landed.

In a separate instance filmed by another independent journalist, Talia Jane, an officer flings a protester against a signpost and then hurls him to the pavement, where he is pinned by two officers as he is punched by a third.

The footage of the police, including at least one commander, pummeling protesters recalled some of the N.Y.P.D. conduct caught on video at the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020. The city ended up paying $13 million to settle a class-action suit brought by those protesters.

In a video of the Saturday protest posted on Twitch, half a dozen people could be seen filming a group of police officers and commanders walking on Bay Ridge Avenue. A police commander grabbed the nearest one, followed by two more commanders and a scrum of blue-shirted officers.

The protester was shoved to the ground, handcuffed and arrested. Other people in the crowd continued recording the event.

Those arrested were led to police vans and driven to the headquarters in Manhattan. A light rain began to fall, and by 8 p.m. the protest had dispersed.

Sabir Hasko contributed reporting.



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Virgin Trains targets West Coast in return to rail

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Virgin Group has applied for a licence to run trains on the route it lost to Avanti in 2019.



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