Just one week after a groundbreaking article in the L.A. Times named Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond as being behind the 1994 shooting of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur, new evidence says the write up was wrong. The Smoking Gun has published an extensive investigative piece that claims the article penned by L.A. Times reporter Chuck Phillips is based on forged documents.
Phillips asserted that through countless interviews, research and the identifying of unnamed sources, he was able to get to the bottom of the plot surrounding the shooting of Tupac at the Quad City studios in New York. He said Diddy knew Pac was going to be attacked and that the mogul approved it, though he didn't know the rapper would be shot. Phillips also found that Rosemond, the CEO of Czar Entertainment, put the plan in motion.
Both Diddy and Henchman have vehemently denied these claims addressing the allegations in seperate statements.
"This story is beyond ridiculous and completely false," Diddy said. "Neither Biggie [Christopher Wallace] nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. It is a complete lie to suggest that there was any involvement by Biggie or myself. I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story."
Rosemond said he has never "even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges."
He also brought up the last time Phillips got the story surrounding Pac's shooting wrong, "Chuck Phillips, the writer who in the past has falsely claimed that the Notorious B.I.G. was in Las Vegas when Tupac was murdered and that Biggie supplied the gun that killed Tupac -- only to be proven wrong as Biggie was in New Jersey recuperating from a car accident, has reached a new low by employing fourth-hand information from desperate jailhouse informants along with ancient FBI reports to create this fabrication."
Though the reporter stuck to his story new evidence has surfaced that may prove Phillips has gotten it wrong again.
According to The Smoking Gun three of the documents the writer based his report on aren't even official FBI reports as they claim to be. The suspect papers contain information supposedly provided to FBI agents by an unnamed "confidential source."
TSG says the presently incarcerated promoter James Sabatino -- who has also been implicated in the shooting as having lured Pac to the studio that night, and now believed to be the "unnamed source" -- distributed these records himself. The papers contain black marks masking the name of the agent (or agents) who prepared the forms as well as the case numbers, but the originals could not be found in the FBI database.
Furthermore, an examination of the three documents revealed that they were created on a typewriter and grammatical errors and sentence phrasing, similar to Sabatino's own prose on forged court pleadings linked to the inmate.
TSG claims Sabatino falsely injected himself into the story of Pac's shooting, and is nothing more than a "disturbed attention-seeker" who really had nothing to do with the crime.
Henchman feels vindicated.
"I have always maintained over the past 14 years that I had no knowledge or involvement in the assault on Tupac in 1994," he said in his most recent statement. "Because the truth has come out, I am finally hopeful that I can move forward in my service to the music industry."
Times managing editor Marc Duvoisin said that the paper is launching its own investigation into the documents.
Phillips asserted that through countless interviews, research and the identifying of unnamed sources, he was able to get to the bottom of the plot surrounding the shooting of Tupac at the Quad City studios in New York. He said Diddy knew Pac was going to be attacked and that the mogul approved it, though he didn't know the rapper would be shot. Phillips also found that Rosemond, the CEO of Czar Entertainment, put the plan in motion.
Both Diddy and Henchman have vehemently denied these claims addressing the allegations in seperate statements.
"This story is beyond ridiculous and completely false," Diddy said. "Neither Biggie [Christopher Wallace] nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. It is a complete lie to suggest that there was any involvement by Biggie or myself. I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story."
Rosemond said he has never "even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges."
He also brought up the last time Phillips got the story surrounding Pac's shooting wrong, "Chuck Phillips, the writer who in the past has falsely claimed that the Notorious B.I.G. was in Las Vegas when Tupac was murdered and that Biggie supplied the gun that killed Tupac -- only to be proven wrong as Biggie was in New Jersey recuperating from a car accident, has reached a new low by employing fourth-hand information from desperate jailhouse informants along with ancient FBI reports to create this fabrication."
Though the reporter stuck to his story new evidence has surfaced that may prove Phillips has gotten it wrong again.
According to The Smoking Gun three of the documents the writer based his report on aren't even official FBI reports as they claim to be. The suspect papers contain information supposedly provided to FBI agents by an unnamed "confidential source."
TSG says the presently incarcerated promoter James Sabatino -- who has also been implicated in the shooting as having lured Pac to the studio that night, and now believed to be the "unnamed source" -- distributed these records himself. The papers contain black marks masking the name of the agent (or agents) who prepared the forms as well as the case numbers, but the originals could not be found in the FBI database.
Furthermore, an examination of the three documents revealed that they were created on a typewriter and grammatical errors and sentence phrasing, similar to Sabatino's own prose on forged court pleadings linked to the inmate.
TSG claims Sabatino falsely injected himself into the story of Pac's shooting, and is nothing more than a "disturbed attention-seeker" who really had nothing to do with the crime.
Henchman feels vindicated.
"I have always maintained over the past 14 years that I had no knowledge or involvement in the assault on Tupac in 1994," he said in his most recent statement. "Because the truth has come out, I am finally hopeful that I can move forward in my service to the music industry."
Times managing editor Marc Duvoisin said that the paper is launching its own investigation into the documents.
