More on that LA Times report last week which made formal allegations against Sean P Diddy Whatnot Combs and Czar Entertainment chief Jimmy Rosemond in relation to the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur, an incident that some say led to the escalation of tensions in the US hip hop community in the mid-nineties that ultimately led to the murders of both Shakur and the Notorious BIG.
Allegations about Combs' and Rosemond's prior knowledge of and possible involvement in the 1994 attack have been made before (not least by Shakur himself), but in the LA Times last week Pulitzer prize winning reporter Chuck Philips claimed to have seen FBI documents which he alleged gave credence to the allegations that Combs and Rosemond were in studios near where Shakur was shot in 94, and both had advance warning that an attack on the rapper was about to take place.
Both Combs and Rosemond quickly denied those allegations, meanwhile the SmokingGun.com website yesterday alleged that the FBI documents on which Philips based his article were in fact fake. They claim the docs were manufactured by one James Sabatino, a former Combs associated who, as previously reported, launched a lawsuit against Diddy last Autumn claiming he was owed money relating to projects he funded involved the late Notorious BIG. Sabatino was himself mentioned in Philips article, in particular as the man who gave Combs and Rosemond the advance warning about the attack on Tupac.
In his latest rebuttal of the Philips story, Rosemond told reporters the new allegations were an attempt by Philips, the Times and "dishonest government informants" to damage his reputation, adding: "In this peaceful time in hip hop, the LA Times' false accusations are as serious as when J Edgar Hoover deliberately sent false hate letters to chapters of the Black Panther Party to create mistrust, violence and mayhem. Chuck Philips irresponsibly did the same thing by creating a potentially violent climate in the hip-hop community".
According to the latest reports, Philips stands by his story, though the LA Times are reportedly looking into his sources to check the SmokingGun's allegations about forged documents.