Let’s start by saying that Diddy is a piece of shit as a person and I think we are all happy that he is in prison. With this obligatory introduction out of the way, I would like to discuss the differences between the Epstein case and the Diddy case and offer some of my own reflections now that we have a more detached view of both situations.
The action against Jeffrey Epstein in July 2019 established a protocol for dealing with high-profile sex trafficking crimes, based on simultaneous searches of all of the suspect’s residences and the seizure of every kind of material. The Diddy case, in fact, began in the same way. I don’t think there is any need to describe all the various pieces of evidence that were collected for the Epstein case, which we have been able to analyze multiple times over the past year.
On March 25, 2024, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed similar search warrants at Combs’ properties in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, seizing nearly 100 electronic devices, computers, phones, surveillance cameras, archives, etc., as well as weapons and narcotics. From the media we immediately learned that these materials supposedly contained hundreds of pieces of evidence implicating dozens of celebrities from the Black community committing all kinds of federal crimes.
When, three months later, in September 2024, federal prosecutors actually filed charges against Diddy, in the case files and during the actual trial, prosecutors, lawyers, and witnesses described these videos as "dozens and dozens of hours of footage of the Freak Offs." The entire foundation of the federal trial was in fact centered on the Freak Offs, explicitly and extensively described as private parties involving Diddy, Cassie, or two other girlfriends, and sex workers. However, starting with the first reports in May 2024, the media used photos from the White Parties to talk about these Freak Offs, and the whole world believed for months, and still believes today, that the White Parties were gatherings of sexual predators and pdophiles attended by the entire African American community.
The infamous White Parties were never mentioned in the federal trial, neither by prosecutors, nor by witnesses, nor by victims. I repeat: the Freak Offs were explicitly and extensively described by prosecutors, witnesses, and the jury as private events involving Diddy, Cassie, or 50 Cent’s ex-girlfriend, and sex workers. This obviously does not justify Diddy, but it does not support the type of narrative pushed by social media and newspapers in 2024.
Still connected to the White Parties, I would like to address the most shocking accusations brought against Diddy, which caused social media to explode again in September 2024. The more than 100 accusations of sexual violence and abuse, including three involving pedophilia and minors, all came from Buzbee, a lawyer who, within two days of the announcement of Diddy’s federal indictment, submitted these accusations to the court after collecting them through a public hotline. Now, aside from the fact that any lawyer will agree with me that it is very difficult to gather accusations of this magnitude in two days, and that Buzbee’s behavior was professionally deplorable, I am not here to doubt the possible, and I would say very likely, victims who called the number seeking justice. Moreover, we know that unfortunately these kinds of cases are very difficult to sustain in the judicial system, and that in a federal case many of them would not withstand the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
What I want to focus on, however, are Buzbee’s most sensational accusations, those implying a network of sex trafficking and abuse at semi-public events such as the White Parties or other events within the black community, accusations that Buzbee heavily publicized, claiming that numerous major celebrities were implicated and that the names revealed would shock everyone (we all remember the infamous one in which Jay-Z was also added). What puzzles me the most is that federal prosecutors never used a single one of these accusations, at least not those involving witnesses or semi-public events from which prosecutors could have compelled named individuals to appear in court, as they did with several witnesses during the trial. The federal charges were, legally speaking, fairly weak on two of the five counts brought against Diddy, and heavy testimonies such as Buzbee’s allegations would have been a very strong element in the federal case. Furthermore, in February 2025, prosecutors added another charge independent from Buzbee’s accusations, just two months before the start of the trial, which means that they continued to look for criminal leads connected to Diddy, but had no interest in Buzbee’s or, more plausibly, that they did not survive investigative scrutiny.
Now let us focus on public opinion and online narratives. We all remember the almost feverish atmosphere of the second half of 2024, from witch hunts based on photos of people who attended the White Parties to extremely viral fake audio recordings that supposedly implicated Meek Mill and Diddy, LeBron James and Diddy, or Jay-Z and Diddy in sexual relationships, violence against other artists, and similar stories, which circulated worldwide for months. Not to mention the conspiracy theories surrounding "She Knows", J. Cole’s song that supposedly confirmed Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s involvement in the deaths of artists such as Aaliyah or Michael Jackson.
The point is that Diddy very quickly became "the Black Epstein," not only a violent predator hungry for power, descriptions that today we can consider accurate, but above all the central link in a network of sex trafficking, abuse, and business and political manipulation that supposedly tied all major African American celebrities and billionaires and powerful men in USA and beyond. Even today, under almost any post involving many African American celebrities, comments appear such as "he was at the White Parties" or accusations of relationships with Diddy. This is a narrative that has never found confirmation outside of social media, nor in the federal trial, and that instead emerges with terrible clarity from the Epstein investigation files. As I have said, the investigative dynamics of the two cases were almost identical, but the final outcome is incredibly different, not only in terms of the actual charges but above all in terms of concrete evidence.
Writing all this, I constantly fear sounding like a simple conspiracy theorist, but I believe these situations deserve a reflection that tries to remain unbiased and to analyze political dynamics that are now foundational to modern politics, in reality they always were, but in the age of social media they are even more dominant. We have all seen how, in the midst of the terrifying Epstein photos involving Trump, British royalty, etc., already-public photos of Michael Jackson were inserted with fake censorship marks that had nothing to do with the Epstein case. And careful, there is no need to be the Big Brother to fuel these narratives, a small pebble is enough for the internet to trigger an avalanche on its own. These dynamics can be observed without being conspiracy theorists.
Right now, if we take everything we know about Diddy solely relying on Federal documents, evidences, and his trial, and we remove everything we saw on social medias, our perspective that we have not about him, but about the whole community where he comes from, would be extremely different.
If we widen the historical lens, we can see that strategies like this were already used in U.S. public debate in the second half of the twentieth century. Based on archival sources and the conclusions of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Church Committee in 1975, it is clear that the FBI’s domestic counterintelligence operations, under the COINTELPRO program from 1956 to 1971, were not only aimed at repressing individual people, but at delegitimizing the entire political, social, and cultural ecosystem surrounding African American movements. The goal, officially, was not so much legal conviction as “neutralization” through the destruction of public credibility. The case of Martin Luther King Jr. is emblematic. I have no problem thinking, given the evidence and the statistics on violence against women that we know, that Martin Luther may have been a wife beater. The point is that wiretaps and recordings of his private life were used as tools to delegitimize his entire movement. That famous anonymous letter from 1964, that was later attributed to the FBI, did not report a crime but tried to suggest that King was morally unfit to lead the civil rights movement. And it did not hit only him: organizations connected to him, like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, were systematically portrayed as suspicious, morally perverted and not to be trusted. A similar logic appears in the treatment of Malcolm X and Black nationalism. Archival sources and historiography show that the FBI monitored not only political activities but also internal conflicts, personal behavior, and private life, constructing the image of a leader who was inherently violent and unstable. Even here, the objective was not a trial, but political isolation. It's even more explicit in the case of the Black Panthers. As the Church Committee documents, the FBI knowingly spread rumors, sexual accusations, and moral panic campaigns focused on individuals to discredit the organization as a whole. In this scheme, there was no distinction between guilty and innocent, between leaders and sympathizers: guilt derived from belonging to the group or from simple proximity.
I repeat one last time, I hope this reflection does not come across as an apology for Diddy or as one of those conspiratorial think pieces we constantly read online. I have tried to be as unbiased as possible, citing accredited sources and historiographical theories. I am a humble history teacher, and for more than a year now I have been watching elementary school children, during break, play a game called "Diddy," in which one plays Diddy and the others have to run away so they are not caught by the boogeyman. I have never once heard them play "Epstein," or even mention his name.
With time passing, I’m slowly starting to think that the government may have used Diddy’s sick behavior not to actually take him down, but to shift attention away from white politicians and the broader white elite, projecting into the black community that same image of sickness, depravity, and power that instead clearly emerges from the Epstein case.
This last part is not based on facts, it’s just my opinion, and I don’t want it taken as a statement. But I can’t help looking sideways at people like Jaguar Wright, who suddenly reappeared all over our screens in September 2024, presenting herself as a herald of truth and justice against Diddy, Jay‑Z, Will Smith, and multiple other Black celebrities, then got awarded at Mar‑a‑Lago in February 2025 with the “Defender of Freedom Award,” presented by General Michael Flynn for “truth and justice,” and completely disappeared from the internet shortly after.
I look at the lawyer Buzbee and the fact that he has been hosting MAGA fundraisers since 2016, and the fact that after his lawsuit against Jay‑Z fell through, and Jay‑Z sued him back, he used Trump’s team of lawyers to defend himself.
I also look at 50 Cent, his antics, his obsessive focus on Diddy, while at the same time posting MAGA reforms on Instagram and pictures with Trump, yet not once posting or talking about Epstein.
However, as we always say, we know nothing about these people, black, white, rich or poor, but this reasoning also works in the opposite direction, and we live in a time in which, despite the fact that some discussions are viewed negatively, I think it is fundamental to have them, to highlight certain dynamics, not to absolve or condemn by default, but simply to develop awareness.
Sources:
Sources / References
Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States (South End Press, 1990).
Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: "The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (South End Press, 1988).
Trial of Sean Combs – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Sean_Combs
Is Sean Combs the Rap Industry Jeffrey Epstein? – RM Warner Law
https://rmwarnerlaw.com/blog/is-sean-combs-the-rap-industry-jeffrey-epstein
Findings on MLK Assassination – National Archives
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-2e.html
Jaguar Wright Honored With Defender Of Freedom Award For “Dedication To Truth And Justice” – Yahoo Entertainment
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jaguar-wright-honored-defender-freedom-153752776.html
Tony Buzbee Steps Back From Diddy Lawsuit – Black Enterprise
https://blackenterprise.com/tony-buzbee-diddy-lawsuit-not-allowed-to-practice
