No, this clip doesn’t show Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in prison | Fact check

A Sept. 26 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows music producer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs speaking to the camera and expressing disbelief.
“I’m trying to figure out, like, just what’s even going on, like, like how is this happening?” Combs says at one point.
Text in the video states, “Diddy Combs speaks from prison.”
The Instagram post received more than 200 likes in four days and circulated widely on TikTok.
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The video is miscaptioned. It is from 2010 and shows Combs speaking about an earthquake in Haiti.
Combs was arrested Sept. 16 in Manhattan and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The music mogul pleaded not guilty to those federal charges the following day. He was denied bail twice and ordered to remain in custody pending trial.
Fact check: Images that show Diddy being arrested are AI creations
But the video in the Instagram post does not show Combs behind bars. The clip predates his 2024 arrest by more than a decade, and a longer version of it makes clear that Combs is referencing a deadly natural disaster, not his time in police custody.
The clip was taken from a longer video Combs posted in January 2010 to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti after it was ravaged by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that according to estimates killed up to 300,000 people and displaced millions more.
Several clues indicate the Instagram clip is miscaptioned. First, Combs is wearing what appears to be a brown sweater over a white T-shirt, not a jumpsuit or other attire typically worn by an inmate. The background, which shows turquoise and purple walls and ornate trim, resembles a bedroom more than a detention center. And the clip posted to Instagram begins with Combs saying that “money will be used properly” – a statement that makes no sense in the context of his incarceration.
The post also wrongly describes Combs as speaking from prison. Combs is being held in a detention center in Brooklyn while he awaits trial. Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn is not a prison. It’s a federal jail primarily used to detain the accused before they stand trial. Prisons, on the other hand, typically house convicted offenders while they serve their sentences.
USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that several celebrities purged their social media activity after Combs’ arrest, that an image shows Combs posing with Vice President Kamala Harris and that a mugshot of him was captured in 2024.
USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram and TikTok users who shared the video but did not immediately receive responses.
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