Fall of Diddy Filmmakers: For Accusers, “Fear Has Been Incredibly Palpable”

As Sean “Diddy” Combs sits behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, a new Investigation Discovery docuseries called The Fall of Diddy explores the road that led him there.

The four-episode doc from Maxine Productions and IPC, in association with Rolling Stone Films, concludes on Tuesday with two more installments—plus the first on-camera interview with Phil Pines, who was Combs’s senior executive assistant from 2019 to 2021. The series contains testimony from those in the mogul’s inner orbit, including former friends, colleagues, and staff members, some of whom accuse Combs of abuse or say they witnessed his alleged misconduct.

Combs, whose trial is slated to begin on May 5, pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied all allegations against him. “Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court he will prevail: that the accusations against Mr. Combs are pure fiction,” his legal team said in response to the accusations included in the documentary.

Vanity Fair has reached out to Combs’s legal representative for additional comment. The following statement has been shared with multiple outlets:

“These documentaries are rushing to cash in on the media circus surrounding Mr. Combs. The producers failed to provide sufficient time or details for his representatives to address unsubstantiated claims, many from unidentified participants whose allegations lack context. By withholding this information, they made it impossible for Mr. Combs to present facts to counter these fabricated accusations. This production is clearly intended to present a one-sided and prejudicial narrative. As we’ve said before, Mr. Combs cannot respond to every publicity stunt or facially ridiculous claim. He has full confidence in the facts and the judicial process, where the truth will prevail: the accusations against him are pure fiction.”

When asked about the allegation that producers did not provide enough time for Combs’s reps to respond to claims, an Investigation Discovery spokesperson told Vanity Fair: “The Fall of Diddy uses firsthand accounts, in-depth interviews, and publicly available content to tell this timely story.”

Maxine Productions’ Emma Schwartz, a codirector on the series, has spoken about the difficulty in finding sources to speak out against Combs, even after his September arrest. “I do think the fear has been incredibly palpable for so many people—even those who came forward and those who came close to and are not yet ready—in a very, very tangible way and, at least from my experience, that I have not felt as acutely before,” Schwartz told The Hollywood Reporter.

Tracking Combs’s rise as a hip-hop and fashion mogul was integral to understanding the authority he held over those in his inner circle, she added. “The power that people perceive [Combs] to hold over them has to do with his rise and his reach, and all of the empire that he built over the decades,” Schwartz told THR. “And one of the things that stood out to me, that made his story so different from so many other stories where we hear all kinds of allegations, is that many people today are trying to grapple with what his legacy is.”

ID president Jason Sarlanis told the publication that he hopes The Fall of Diddy “gives an opportunity for people who allege that they were victims of that power to speak back to that power,” noting that “that duality is what we’re trying to achieve with this documentary.”

The Fall of Diddy’s remaining episodes will premiere on Tuesday, January 28, at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET.