One of Elon Musk's biggest Twitter investors has been accused of sex trafficking and domestic violence

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A journalist has won the battle to force Elon Musk to disclose the list of people who financed his Twitter purchase – and one name on the list stands out.

According to court documents filed in response to a whistleblower petition filed by reporter and author Jacob Silverman, Musk's Twitter takeover was funded by everyone from Saudi prince and Harvard investor Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to – perhaps most bizarrely – rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose involvement in the deal had been rumored TMZ but never confirmed until now.

In recent months, Combs has been in the news because he was accused of a number of serious crimes, ranging from sex trafficking and domestic violence to involvement in the conspiracy to murder Tupac Shakur.

Although he has been the subject of whisper-network allegations and headline-grabbing violent altercations for years, it wasn't until last fall that the world became aware of the rapper's alleged abusive tendencies in horrifying detail, when his ex-girlfriend and fellow musician Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he physically and sexually assaulted her.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations in that quickly settled lawsuit and the many others that followed, Musk has not yet made any public statement or confirmation of Combs' investment – although he has said he would, according to a forthcoming book by a pair of New York Times Reporters count the rapper among their “good friends.”

Puff-Puff-Pass

In an X-Post with excerpts from his forthcoming book “Character Limit”, which he wrote together with his colleague NYT Technology reporter Kate Conger and journalist Ryan Mac point out that Combs' inclusion in the sale came with a fair amount of drama.

Speaking to Detavio Samuels, CEO of Diddy's would-be media empire Revolt TV, during his first week as owner of the social network, Musk sought to allay advertisers' fears about the platform's racist cadres, who seemed emboldened by his purchase.

During the call, Samuels said he was concerned about Musk's “approach to content moderation,” and he made it clear to the brash billionaire that he disagreed with the way Musk ran the newsroom, comparing it to people whispering racist slurs to him on the street.

Although Musk ultimately agreed with the Revolt CEO, he also used this moment in the conversation to announce Combs' investment.

“I don't know if you know this, but Puff is an investor in Twitter,” said the white South African, referring to one of Diddy's former stage names. “You know, he's a good friend of mine. We text each other a lot.”

The reprimand was so embarrassing, Mac wrote, that “some of Twitter's executives had to resist the urge to bury their heads in their hands” – and it's likely they'll continue to do so now that this revelation is coming to light.

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