up for instagram today, and i do have a teen but will not let him sign up just yet, but he would see the new version of instagram right now. if you have a teen already on instagram, you will seat changes roll out the next two months. i think it's essential to understand even if parents are not involved and choose not to engage with this, their teens will be put in more of a restrictive setting. >> that's reassuring for me as a mom about to have a teen soon. that's going to do it for us today. thank you for joining. see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. you can catch our show around the clock on youtube and other platforms. josé diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. ♪♪

good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern. 8:00 a.m. pacific. i am josé diaz-balart. we begin this hour with breaking news. new york prosecutors are expected to hold a press conference this hour after combs was arrested last night by federal authorities on three counts, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. prosecutors write, quote, for decades sean combs, the defendant, abused and threatened and coerced women around him to fulfill his sexual desires and protect his reputation and conceal his conduct. before the indictment was unsealed, an attorney for combs said he's innocent and plans on pleading not guilty. lisa ruben, msnbc legal

correspondent, with us as well. chloe, you are down at the courthouse. what are we expecting to learn about the charges today? >> reporter: hey, there, josé. in about 30 minutes we will hear from the u.s. attorney's office. they will be holding a press conference down the street. according to mark, one of the attorneys for sean "diddy" combs, he said that combs was actually inside. he's waiting to be arraigned. we still don't have a time for that. i want to say, look, i am holding the indictment right here and they talk about how the alleged abuse was verbal, sexual, physical. it talks about the sex parties where sean combs manipulated women to be part of the highly-orchestrated sexual, and

it was not just female sex workers but male sex workers as well, and he would videotape these sex workers and blackmail them to use it against them, and there's a litany of accusations in here. it will be interesting to see what authorities say at the press conference. remember, nbc news was the first to report that a grand jury was hearing evidence from alleged accusers, and that also, remember, his homes were raided in florida and california last spring. at the time nbc news reported that they seized cell phones and guns. they talk about those guns, those ar-15s with some of the serial numbers scratched off on them. again, combs is denning all the accusations against him. i want to point out that damning video of the surveillance video

of sean "diddy" combs beating up his girlfriend at the time that filed a sweeping civil suit against him last year and at the time he denied ever being possible to engage in physical violence and that surveillance came out showing him beating her up at a hotel in 2016 and had to walk back his initial denial and apologize and he claimed it was a one-off incident, but authorities claim this behavior went on for years and used businesses to hide behavior for decades. josé? >> lisa, when one reads the indictment, these 14 pages, i am just wondering what stuck out to you as being the most significant one of all of these charges? >> josé, that's a very difficult question to answer because on each and every one of the 14 pages i think i gasps at the

severity of the charges here. the attorney that chloe was just referring to said earlier today that his client is an imperfect person, but if a jury were to find that sean combs engaged in anyone of the three charges he would be far beyond imperfect, he would be a person that we all agree is grotesque and a monster for engaging in some of the behaviors. i think what stood out to me is how long sean combs was able to conceal the alleged behavior here through a variety of coercive techniques that span the gamut from the use of guns, supplying his victims with drugs, and the sex workers trafficked across state lines and internationally. the fact that there's video evidence because sean combs allegedly videoed these

freak-offs and used them to intimidate the victims, and he says i have you engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers. the other thing that stands out is the involvement of the unnamed people, security personnel and high-ranking executives in his businesses, there are a lot of people here who are and could be held accountable for the way they conspired and facilitated the abuse. the people, unless they are already cooperating with the prosecutors, many could face their own criminal liability here. there are references, for example, to staff concealing and hiding some of sean combs' victims in residents or hotels

because they were so physically injured that for them to be seen publicly would have been risking exposing what was going on. this is an enterprise for a reason, because it took a whole lot more people other than just sean combs to make the abuse and the trafficking happen. we should continue to watch to see who is participating in the u.s. attorney office's investigation and who might even face charges here alongside sean combs. there are a bunch of people looking at the 14-page instrument that should be nervous across the city or in other locations like in los angeles and miami, josé. >> lisa, let's go to the fourth point brought up on just page two of the indictment says, physical abuse by sean combs, the defendant, was recurrent and widely known from numerous

locations at least from 2009 and continuing for years, and combs assaulted women by striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at and kicking them. these were assaults at times witnessed by others, and of course that includes the los angeles videotape hotel in march of 2016. this is possibly involving a whole slew of people. >> absolutely. i just want to be very clear about differentiating between witnessing conduct and being part of an alleged criminal enterprise. being a bystander to this doesn't make somebody a participant in the criminal enterprise, but actively taking steps to conspire with the head of an enterprise is what is being alleged here, that these people here at sean combs'

encouragement, obtain drugs and iv fluids that were used to sustain and rehydrate them after these freak-offs, which were sex parties or marathons and in some cases lasted for days and imposed injuries to the women who participated in them. as i said earlier, there must be a number of people in sean combs' life, whether they are people that work at bad boy entertainment or any of his other businesses that are directly involved here, and if they are not already cooperating with the feds, many people are probably having that conversation this morning with lawyers, including those they never met. i would imagine there's a number of criminal defense attorneys across the country whose phones are ringing.

>> there's nothing party like in the freak-offs. >> no, there's not. >> the indictment alleged during the freak-offs combs distributed a variety of drugs to the victims unbeknownst to the victims, and he filmed the victims engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers, and with the connection of the videos combs kept, what does it say about the evidence in the prosecutor's position? >> we know his homes and businesses were raided and we can bet among the evidence prosecutors were able to obtain were some of the videos. prosecutors have other videos in the position referenced in the indictment including the 2016 surveillance tape with combs

with his then-girlfriend that sued him last september. that is referenced in the indictment. as you note, josé, the fact that the prosecutors are saying combs often took video tapes of his victims engaged in sex acts with commercial sex workers, they have reasonable cause to put that here and that means many of the video tapes are in their possession and could be shown to a jury if and when this case goes to trial, josé. >> lisa, there's also the issue here as i look at page seven and eight, that says members and associates of combs enterprises includes combs' security personnel carried firearms and that's not in and of itself illegal, but during the search of his residences in florida and

los angeles, there were weapons with defaced serial numbers. in the state of florida it's not illegal to possess ars, but deface serial numbers on them is. >> yeah, and the fact that these wep kupbz were found in his possession proves to me that they were trying to elude or evade detection that these weapons were purchased on the black market. the very presence of guns in the indictment is something that differentiates it from some other sex situations, and i am thinking of ebstein and weinstein. the guns and the drugs in particular, but also how much more visible the presence of

other staff is. you know, we know, for example, from both the ebstein and weinstein situations that there were people around both of them that facilitated both of them, and for the most part, with the exception of maxwell, many were not held to account, legally or otherwise. and here they are making it transparent, this did not exist without the cooperation, active engagement and participation of a whole host of others that they say were known and unknown to them. the fact that they know who many of these people are, those people sure scared this morning because either they are going to be witnesses at trial or may see their name on the other side of what they call the v, the versus, in a criminal instrument. >> on the issue with weapons, back to the indictment, on more than one occasion combs himself

brandished firearms to intimidate his victims and other witnesses, too. i want to thank you, chloe, for being with us. lisa, stay with us. we are keeping our eyes on the u.s. district's office where there's expected to be an update on the charges against combs. but, next, the second assassination attempt of donald trump, and what tim walz said moments ago about what happened on the golf course. breaking overseas, hundreds of people injured as wireless pagers explode across lebanon. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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as i was writing, i found that i just wasn't sharp and that doesn't work when you're writing a mystery and i knew i needed to do something so i started taking prevagen. i realized that i was much more clear, much sharper. i was remembering the details that i was supposed to. prevagen keeps my brain working right. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. 15 past the hour. we turn to breaking news out of the middle east. just in the last couple of minutes, the lebanese red cross says it's responding to multiple bombings across that country. officials are warning the public avoid using handheld communication devices as pagers exploded throughout the country.

joining us now, raf sanchez in tel aviv. what are we learning about this? this is more than one. >> reporter: josé, this is many, many, many more than one. this is a pretty extraordinary situation and sounds like something around a spy situation. we started getting reports of large numbers of hezbollah militants all wounded all simultaneously in southern beirut and southern lebanon and all across the country. what was so striking, josé, these militants had not been wounded in air strikes or any obvious kind of military attack. and what emerged from the ministry of health is their pagers all exploded, apparently simultaneously, so you had people walking down the street and people in supermarkets and on the backs of motorcycles and all of a sudden the pagers they

were keeping in their pockets or on their belts exploded. this is a major health emergency in lebanon. we are seeing reports of hospitals all across the country taking people in. the obvious suspect in this case, would be israel, which is fighting the border war. it's very notable, josé, this wide series of explosions happened a couple hours after the israeli government said it foiled a hezbollah assassination attempt here in tel aviv. we're also hearing from the iranian embassy in lebanon that iran's ambassador suffered what the embassy is calling superficial injuries after the

widespread explosions. pagers, an outdated technology, buzz hezbollah said they stopped using cell phones because they were afraid israel could track them and monitor their use and handed out pagers thinking it could be a more secure way of their members communicating and now it seems the pagers are the cause of widespread injuries and at this time we don't have reports of confirmed fatalities, but it's a striking incident unfolding now across lebanon. >> important, and i am glad you mentioned the difference, because for decades, right, people, for example, in the united states, have stopped using pagers. we are talking about the beepers, right, what we used to call beepers in the old days. they are small little box-like things that people clipped on to their belts and et cetera, but

they are not using cell phones but beepers or pagers, and they exploded at such an intense degree that people could be losing limbs, their fingers, their hands? >> reporter: yeah, josé, like i said it feels like something out of an espionage movie. we do not understand what caused the pagers to explode. maybe the batteries were caused to overheat and that caused them to blow up. that seems unlikely to me given the scale of the injuries. it seems more likely that some kind of small explosive was planted in, again, what you say is a very small beeper device, only a couple inches by a couple inches. we do not know at this point, we don't have any firm information from israel or from anybody who

is in the know at this point, but hezbollah publicly announced it was relying on the 1980s, 1990s technology, because it was so concerned that israel has such vast electronics capabilities was monitoring their cell phones so they reverted to the more old-fashioned technology and it appears these pagers have caused very, very widespread injuries, josé. >> raf sanchez, thank you so much. i appreciate it. i am just being told -- what are we -- if you could hold with me. oh, this is a video that we are first able to show you now. this looks to be some sort of a market. this is in lebanon. the person on the left part of your screen drops -- it's the person there that had the cap in the gray shirt and he was in front of one of the fruit carts. you can see there's an explosion

that happens around the waist area on the right part of the person that has a pouch or something. the person is very seriously injured there. look at everybody else. this is just one video, because there was a security camera at this market. raf. >> reporter: so josé, i will tell you we are able to show our viewers this video and that our team has verified it. we are seeing similar videos all across lebanon. what you are looking at there, the man on the left, blue shirt and gray gap and he is shopping and buying grapes or something and then something explodes at his waist band. this individual seems to be seriously injured, but if you look at the rest of the supermarket and people around him, they don't seem injured. that cart of fruit seems

minimally disturbed that shows you this is a small explosive, but it's an explosive that detonated directly on this person's body, and if you think about that, it's playing out all over lebanon, josé. >> thank you for pointing that out. there were two people within a foot and a half or two feet of this person and they appear to be uninjured, whereas the person that the explosion, you know, happens on their body seems very seriously injured. raf sanchez, i thank you for that. this is video we were just getting in so i wanted to thank you all for being with us as we process this information that is coming at us real time. raf, thank you. up next, what former president trump is saying about the second apparent attempt on his life. we are keeping our eyes on the u.s. attorneys office in lower manhattan right now. the officials are expected to give an update on their serious

charges against sean "p. diddy" combs. we're taking you live there. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. screen for colon cancer in your home, your way. ask your provider for, ♪ cologuard ♪ ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the

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happened. >> so i was playing golf with some of my friends. it was on a sunday morning and very peaceful, very beautiful. weather, everything was beautiful. a nice place to be. all of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air. i guess four or five. it sounded like bullets. >> authorities are also revealing more about the investigation, saying the suspect had been at the golf course for about 12 hours before being spotted by the secret service agent. with us, now, jesse kirsch in palm beach florida, and jonathan allen, and barbara mcquade, and

jim cavanagh. >> the man has been charged with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. he spent 12 hours outside of the golf course before his gun barrel was allegedly spotted by the secret service agent. the secret service agent was asked if the agents were doing the survey of the golf course and the active service director said there was no survey going on because the former president was on and off activity, and so this is bringing renewed scrutiny to the agency who are already under the microscope because of the first attempted

assassination, and then yesterday's is seen as a second assassination. >> what is the reason for having the state investigation into this? >> he says he believes the state could bring tougher charges against the suspect than at the federal level and a reminder the federal investigation is in its early stages. i pressed the governor on why the state could walk and chew gum at the same time but the federal government could not. here's my exchange with the governor. >> they cannot pursue charges to the extent we can. yes, i do think there's a lot of concern about how these agencies have operated and the state of florida, i mean, you know, for us, all we [ bleep ] is the

truth. we are not involved in all the other things they are involved in, and it's better for the public and justice. >> reporter: the aftermath becoming a bit of a political football as well. >> barbara, how unusual is it to have state and federal investigations in something like this? >> it's not unusual, josé. usually there's a high-level of cooperation. the federal and state governments are separate sovereigns and will sometimes conduct parallel investigations and sometimes one will defer to the other for the best charge, and no doubt at some point when they conclude their investigation, i expect the justice department to file charges for attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, and that brings a life term. and the state could bring an

attempted murder charge. and one of the reasons i heard desantis give is mistrust of the justice department. sometimes there can be conflict when one agency steps on another or creates discovery issues for the other agency. >> barbara, thank you. i want to go to new york. the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york is holding a news conference. let's go right to it. sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prosecution. the indictment alleged between 2008 and the presence, combs coerced many. to carry out the conduct, sean combs led and participate in a racketeering conspiracy and used the business empire he controlled to carry out illegal

activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and the obstruction of justice. let me say a little more about the charges. the indictment alleged that combs abused and exploited women and other people for years and in a variety of ways. as alleged combs used force, threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers, some who he transported or caused to be transported overstate lines. combs allegedly planned and controlled the sex performances, which he called freak-offs. he often electronically recorded them. the freak-offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics, such as ketamine,

ecstasy to keep the victims obedient and compliant. when combs did not get his way, he was violent and subjected the victims to physical and emotional abuse so they would participate in the freak-offs, and he would hit, kick and at times drag victims by their hair. specifically combs kicked, dragged and threw a vase at a victim in a los angeles hotel when the victim was attempting to flee. these assaults often resulted in injuries to the victims which took days or weeks to heal. in addition to the violence, combs threatened or coerced victims to get them to participate in the freak-offs and used the sensitive

recordings he made of the freak-offs as collateral against the victims and maintained control over the victims by giving them drugs, by giving and threatening to take away financial support or housing, by promising them career opportunities, by monitoring their whereabouts and even by dictating their physical appearance. because of all this, the indictment alleged the victims did not believe they could refuse combs without risking their security or facing more abuse. the indictment also alleges other acts of violence taken by combs and others including violence to witnesses against the abuse, kidnapping and arson. the indictment alleges on more than one occasion combs carried or brandished firearms to threaten and intimidate victims and witnesses. combs did not do this all on his own. as i mentioned, combs have been

charged with rico conspiracy. he used his business and other associates to get his way, and that included high-ranking supervisors in the business, personal assistants, security staff and household staff. the indictment alleges that those individuals facilitated the freak-offs and would book the hotel rooms and stocked them with the supplies, including drugs, baby oil, personallube and lighting. when the hotels were damaged, they helped to clean it up and around for the sex workers to travel for the freak-offs and delivered large quantities of cash to combs to pay for the sex workers and the indictment alleged they also helped cover up his crimes. a member of the hotel security staff intervened and combs

attempted to bribe the staff member with a stack of cash to make sure that what happened was kept quiet. as the indictment alleges, in late 2023, after public allegations were made about combs' crimes, he and others pressured victims and witnesses to stay silent including by making phone calls to witnesses and victims and giving them a false narrative of what they had experienced. as alleged, combs used others to help conceal his abuse by monitoring and preventing victims from leaving a location in order to hide their injuries or by locating and contacting a victim who attempted to flee. as part of the investigation, in march of this year, special agents from hsi executed search warrants from combs' residences in miami and los angeles and executed warrants for combs' electronic devices.

they seized firearms and ammunition, including three defaced ar-15s and a large capacity drum magazine and also seized evidence of the freak-offs, electronic devices that contain images and videos of the freak-offs with multiple victims. they seized cases and cases of the kind of personal hraoub raw and baby oil to host the freak-offs, more than 1,000 bottles altogether. here are some of the items we recovered during the searches. as can you see here, this is a drum magazine, large capacity and contains, i believe, 59 rounds. i mentioned as well we recovered three ar-15s. this is a close-up shot of one, and the serial number has been

thoroughly defaced. another picture of more ammunition and parts of two ar-15s right there. i want to be clear about two things. first, this office is determined to investigation and prosecute anybody who engages in sex trafficking no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be. nobody should doubt our commitment on that. a year ago sean combs stood in times square and was handed a key to new york city. today he's been indicted and will face justice in the southern district of new york. second, we are not done. this investigation is ongoing and i encourage anybody with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly. anybody with information can call 1-877-4hsi-tip.

i want to express my appreciation for those voices that helped bring this investigation to light. we would not be here without them. and i want to thank the agents on the trafficking squad in new york. they have been with us on day one and will continue to be invaluable partners to us. i want to thank the incredible agents and analysts, and the prosecutors handling this case. meredith, madison, krissy and mitzy and their supervisors.

we created the civil rights union when i became the district attorney. i will now take questions. >> abc. >> reporter: thanks. the indictment describes aggressive, open, violent abuse that you say was recurrent and widely known. why did it take law enforcement so long to intervene? how many women were victimized by sean combs and how many are involved? >> our investigation is ongoing and we are committed to bringing justice to everybody victimized by the defendant. i can't tell you why it took so long and the better focus is that we are here today and we are committed to making sure that justice is done. next question. >> thank you. >> julie ainsley, nbc. >> thank you for doing this.

you said we are not done and combs did not do this alone. do you foresee there could be other charges related to this case? >> i am not taking anything off the table. >> news day? >> what is difference between sex trafficking and promoting travel for the purpose of prostitution? >> i don't think we should get into the nitty gritty of the legal description, and they are all illegal, and the sex trafficking conduct carries significant penalties and we are gratified we could bring that charge. >> sex trafficking, when it involves coercion or force is a very serious crime and carries significant penalties. >> good afternoon.

darla myles from abc new york. in context of the indictment and the information presented to the grand jury, are you able to clarify the number of victims? it's mentioned plural in the indictment. can you specific the number of victims just for this particular indictment? secondly, can you provide details about the alleged arson? >> unfortunately i am unable to provide either. the number of victims, you are correct, we are intentional in saying multiple. the details of the arson incident are limited to what we have in the indictment and also the detention letter we filed which contains more details than the indictment does at various points but we don't have anything more beyond that. next question. >> are any of his associates or accomplices under investigation and could he face more charges?

>> the investigation is ongoing and that means to him and anybody else we believe committed the crimes with him. next question. >> good morning. any indication if some of the women or victims here were imprisoned in his residences? did he have locations where he kept them where they were not allowed to leave? also, he's indicted here although there were searches and raids and miami. why in new york? >> well, i am bias on the u.s. attorney and the southern district of new york and i think we have a record of bringing the most impactful, sprawling, human trafficking, labor trafficking, you name it, we can do it, and we are proud of that. the scope of the investigation is not something that we ran from but embrace and we will

continue to do that. your question about whether he imprisoned anybody, and all i can say is the march 16th incident where it was caught on video where the victim was attempting to flee and there was violence associated with that. that was at a hotel. >> does your office intent to seek remand and how will you contrast this with the r. kelly case? >> we will be seeking detention and we filed a letter laying that out for seeking pretrial detention, and there's a presumption of detention in a case like this and we think that's warranted. >> thank you. >> i was hoping to get more details about the searches of his residences, the guns, and

the cases of lubricant and videos? was it scattered? i want to get a better picture of how it was found? >> some of the details you are seeking are in the detention letter, so for instance, two of the three defaced ar-15s were found in his bedroom closet in miami broken down into parts with magazines with ammunition loaded in them. some of that detail is in the detention letter. beyond that i will not be able to get into where other items were scored. >> ben, the post. >> hey, thanks for doing this. your office was the office that had been prosecuting jeffrey ebstein before he died in custody. i have not read your detention memo yet and it's the first

thing i will do after this ends, but does it -- does the memo address or is your office concerned with combs' safety in custody given what happened with ebstein? >> so we are concerned with anybody's safety whenever they are detained prior to trial. it's part of our obligation to keep people safe as well and it's part of the criminal justice system. i do not draw any sort of connection between jeffrey ebstein's suicide and what may or may not happen to any other defendant while they are detained pretrial. of course, the decision whether to detain the defendant will be up to a judge. our position is that detaining

pretrial -- i will not get into the staffing, but i will say this team, this group of ausas, this incredible group has been working on this case around the clock and have had their hands full. next question. >> gus rosendale. >> combs' attorney said his client has been cooperating with investigators. would you have a reaction to that? >> let me say this. generally with increasing frequency the word cooperative or cooperating has taken on tremendous elasticity and no longer bears any relation to what the word means when we use it in a very specific context. so responding to lawful process and the like does not qualify as cooperation when we use that

term here. >> to that end, was there any discussion of mr. combs' surrendering? i understand he was taken into custody last night and maybe that was not the plan. can you tell us how that came about and why that was? >> i cannot get into details why and when he was taken into custody. he is in custody now and will appear in court later today. >> was there a question of him surrendering given they are claiming he's cooperating? >> i cannot get into the law enforcement tactics or operations. into the charging decision. it's very meaningful to us that weapons were possessed as we allege in the indictment. part of the reason why this conduct was so pervasive and

harmful was because victims and others didn't necessarily feel comfortable denying him his wishes, as we allege, because of the presence of firearms. >> last question, jacobson. >> thank you. given that he is a sole defendant in this case and you allege he is part of a conspiracy that involves members of his companies, do you anticipate a superseding indictment, bring allegations against other members of his companies or other co-conspirators as well? >> anything is possible. our investigation is very active and ongoing. i think a lot of you who cover this office know that when we say such things, that developments are certainly foreseeable. i cannot predict them sitting here today. thank you, everyone.

>> we just together watched this news conference from new york city. back with us is lisa rubin and barbara mcquade, also jim kavanaugh. what do the comments say about the scale of this investigation? >> there are two things that really stood out to me. one is that damien williams, the u.s. attorney, was confirming as part of their searches of combs' houses, they walked away not only with those three ar-15s that you are showing, but they walked away with images and videos of the so-called freak offs, the sex performances that combs orchestrated and directed for his own pleasure to the severe detriment of his victims. the other thing the press conference illustrated was that

their investigation is ongoing. he said, combs did not do this all on his own. we are not done. this investigation is ongoing. during the question and answer portion of the press conference, he gave no further specificity about that, but left the door open to either additional charges against sean combs or potentially charges against others who are part of that group of people who empowered sean combs through the alleged racketeering conspiracy at the heart of this indictment. >> barbara, the u.s. attorney kind of very clearly said that that they're not done with this investigation and combs didn't do this alone. can we see more people charged in connection with this case? >> yes. i would be surprised if we don't. it may be they are still investigating and building evidence against those other individuals, or it could be that some of the other individuals have been cooperating and providing some of this information in exchange for

leniency so they would plead guilty but get a recommendation from this office for some lesser sentence. i think that's a possibility. >> what are your takeaways from the presser today? >> the most significant thing as i have been covering this story for months leading up to this is that they are looking to detain him. there's going to be a letter of detention coming out shortly that they're not going to be allowing him to post bond or we know his legal team is going to be fighting that. also, the fact that they are not done with this investigation. they are encouraging others with any information to come forward. they talk about this business empire that he used -- he reached billionaire status in 2022, to allegedly cover up these crimes. they talked about kidnapping and forced labor and that he threatened individuals and sex workers, that the videotaped

these sex parties known as freak offs. they talk about casandra ventura who filed a suit against him last year and they settled 24 hours later. months later, that damning surveillance video of her being beaten. we heard about it again today. it will be interesting to see who else comes forward. it's not just criminal charges. he faces ten civil suits. we have been hearing from those accusers through their attorneys late last night and into this morning. >> barbara, the first question asked after the statement by officials was, why now? why did it take so long? if as is alleged on page 2 of this indictment, it says the defendant was recurrent and widely known. his physical abuse was recurrent

and widely known from 2009 and continuing for years. combs assaulted women by striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at and kicking them. this was often witnessed by others. why would it have taken so long? from 2009, widely known? >> yeah. this is an ongoing tension in law enforcement. often it's the investigators who want to take down the investigation, charge the individual and make sure that victims are being cared for and removed from harm. on the other hand, there's the prosecution perspective, which is, we need to gather sufficient evidence so when we charge this person, we can obtain a conviction at trial. despite the hour-long criminal procedurals we watch on television, it takes a long time to gather evidence looking at phones, witnesses, video and other kinds of things. i would agree 2009 sounds like a very long time for this to come

to the attention of law enforcement. my guess, it's the civil suits that put in case on the radar screen of law enforcement agencies. >> how many people may have been abused during those years? jim, let's talk about the issue that those ar-15s that they found, two of them, they found, they discovered three, according to officials, drum magazines. the issue of that the serial numbers were defaced, that's an -- what do you make of that? >> the position of a firearm with an obliterated serial number is a federal crime. we charge that all the time in atf. u.s. attorneys would back us on those all the time. it's easy to prove it. most of the time, those numbers were cut because they were stolen guns. they are always cut to hide ownership. it boggles the mind why a billionaire, who is famous -- i

don't think he is a convicted felon. why would he be in possession of guns that have obliterated serial numbers? the importance to the indictment here is the intimidation of people in this sex trafficking ring and people he may have been holding against their will or used in prostitution, the big drum and the magazine, that's not illegal, a 60-round drum. but it's an intimidating thing. you can see the configuration of the ars. they have different configurations. they look certainly terrifying. if you are someone who is threatened with this or this is brandished near you or if you just a closet is opened and say you better do what we say, because look in the closet, you know, that's probably why this is so key to the indictment for the u.s. attorney. it's a charge in and of itself. we have seen the guy in florida charged with the same charge, possession of a firearm with an

obliterated serial number. it's a great charge. usually only criminals do that. they have him on that for sure. >> jim, that's really kind of important and it is unusual, as you say. it's not illegal to have an ar-15, for example, in florida. it's not illegal to possess ammunition for it. why would that weapon have its numbers erased when there's no legal problem with them -- either the suspect or his security staff from having that? >> well, they don't want to be tied to the gun. the gun could have been previously stolen. or they may intend that they're going to shoot someone. they don't want to be tied to the gun. they can dump the gun. at least -- the issue for the investigators and prosecutors will be, were these guns ever

moved in interstate commerce with the intent to commit a felony, for example, sex trafficking? were they moved across the state line to go from miami to l.a., from l.a. to new york, and they were used in furtherance to commit another crime? the guns open up a lot of doors for the prosecutors. that's where we lived every day, guns, bombs, in atf. it helps their case. homeland security investigations has done a super job. the southern district of new york should be commended. it's a long, deep case. they stayed with it. seems like they have a lot of proof. >> thank you all so very much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," sean combs in legal je