Sean “Diddy” Combs has returned the ceremonial “Key to the City of New York” at the request of Mayor Eric Adams amid allegations of sexual assault against Combs and the leaked surveillance video of him assaulting Cassie.
Combs received the key in September 2023 at a ceremony in Times Square, where Mayor Adams said at the time: “The bad boy of entertainment gets the key to the city from the bad boy of politics.”
However, just two months later, Cassie filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging that he raped and physically abused her over the course of a decade. Cassie's lawsuit, which was quickly settled, was the first of seven legal actions against the Bad Boy executive, who is also reportedly at the center of a federal sex-trafficking investigation.
While the lawsuits and allegations mounted, Combs wasn't asked to return the key to New York City until earlier this month, after video leaked of Combs allegedly assaulting Cassie at a hotel, a video that Adams called it “deeply troubling. ”
“The Key to the City of New York is presented to individuals whose service to the public and the common good rise to the highest level of achievement and who serve as role models for fellow and future New Yorkers,” Adams wrote in an op-ed in June 4th. letter to Combs' offices. “After internal deliberations, the Key Committee for the City of New York recommended that Mr. Combs' key be canceled and revoked. I have accepted their recommendation.”
Less than a week after making the request, the mayor's office said Friday that Combs returned the ceremonial key on June 10. reports CBS New York.
Days after New York City demanded its key, Howard University similarly announced it was revoking the honorary doctorate it awarded Combs in 2014 and returning his $1 million donation, saying its board made the unanimous decision the following Friday Cassie's surveillance video.
“Mr. Combs' conduct, as captured in a recently released video, is so fundamentally inconsistent with Howard University's core values and beliefs that he is no longer considered worthy of the institution's highest honor,” a Howard spokesman said. in a statement.
The traffic comes after that Rolling rock released a six-month investigation that included new allegations Combs physically assaulted a woman outside a Howard dormitory when he was a student there in the late 1980s. (Combs dropped out after his sophomore year.)
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sean-combs-returns-key-new-york-city-mayor-rescinds-honor-1235040747/