Prosecutors Suggest Diddy Blew Up Kid Cudi's Car

Federal prosecutors say Sean "Diddy" Combs orchestrated a break-in at a person's home followed by the bombing of their car. That person is believed to be the rapper Kid Cudi. Though the victim isn't named in the letter filed in court last week, the details match closely with an alleged incident described in a lawsuit filed last year by Combs' former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, reports the New York Times. Ventura claimed Combs beat her up more than a decade ago when he found out about a relationship she had with Kid Cudi, then stated "he was going to blow up Kid Cudi's car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened."

Weeks later, in February 2012, Kid Cudi's car burst into flames in his driveway, the suit claimed, adding the incident showed "what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had slighted him." Kid Cudi confirmed Ventura's description of the incident was accurate. Prosecutors describe a very similar incident but with a shifted timeline. They claim that on Dec. 22, 2011, Combs and an associate "kidnapped an individual at gunpoint to facilitate breaking into and entering the residence" of a person referred to as "Individual-1." About two weeks later, associates of Combs set fire to Individual-1's car "by slicing open the car's convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior," prosecutors say.

The letter says authorities concluded "the fire was intentionally set," per Us Weekly. It also claims witnesses heard Combs "bragging about his role" in the arson, per the Cut. Addressing the allegations at a bail hearing last week, Combs' lawyer only said "there is another side to that story, and one day that other side might be told." Ventura settled with Combs a day after her lawsuit was filed, though many of the allegations contained have appeared in the indictment brought by federal prosecutors against Diddy, whom they say "presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes." He is held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center on charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. (More Sean Combs stories.)