Usher has said he was exposed to some “crazy and pretty wild stuff” when he lived at rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ New York mansion at age 14.
On Monday, several Homeland Security agents and law enforcement officials stormed the embattled music mogul’s Holmby Hills and Miami mansions as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
“Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners,” Homeland Security told Us Weekly in a statement shortly after the raids took place. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
Following the raid, a 2016 interview of Usher, 45, on The Howard Stern Show recalling when he lived with the Bad Boy founder, 54, was unearthed by social media users.
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Usher, who resided with Diddy in the spring of 1994, told Stern that it was record executive LA Reid’s idea to have him move into the star’s home to “see the lifestyle.”
When the radio host asked if Diddy’s “place was filled with chicks and orgying nonstop”, Usher replied: “I got a chance to see some things… I don’t know if I could indulge and even understand what I was looking at.
“It was pretty wild,” he added. “It was crazy. There were very curious things taking place and I didn’t necessarily understand it.”
Asked whether he would send his children to “Puffy Flavor Camp,” he swiftly responded: “Hell no!”
In 2004, the Yeah! singer also told Rolling Stone that Diddy introduced him to “a totally different set of s**t — sex, specifically.”
“Sex is so hot in the industry, man,” he explained. “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.”
On Tuesday, Diddy was spotted at a Miami airport just hours after Homeland Security raids on his mansions.
He was reportedly questioned by Customs agents at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport – about 15 miles south of the investigation at his home – at around 6pm local time.
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This followed suspicions that the mogul had fled the country when his private jet LoveAir LLC Gulfstream 5 was tracked flying to Antigua.
Diddy was spotted at a Miami airport after the raid. In the clip, he could be seen pacing around outside a Customs office.
Diddy’s lawyers have since said that Homeland Security Investigation officials used excessive force in an “unprecedented ambush”.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” Combs’ Aaron Dyer, told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, March 26.
“There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.”
The raid on Diddy’s homes comes months after his ex-girlfriend Cassie (real name Casandra Ventura), whom he dated on and off from 2007 to 2018, accused him of rape and repeated sexual abuse in a lawsuit. One day after the suit made headlines, the pair announced that they had reached a settlement.
Since Cassie’s lawsuit, multiple people have come forward also accusing Diddy of sexual assault. It is unclear if there is a connection between their allegations and the raids on Diddy’s homes.
