NBC: Sean Combs used banned phone, paid inmates in prison

NBC News posted a TikTok on Sept. 29 under the handle @nbcnews whose caption states that footage the outlet exclusively obtained shows Sean Combs using a cell phone inside prison, a device prohibited by federal law.

The video packages reporting by Chloe Melas and Rich Schapiro published the same day. NBC News said it reviewed footage and photos of Combs at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey and interviewed four anonymous men who shared his unit there. Multiple sources told the outlet he has paid thousands of dollars a month to other inmates for tasks.

“This is not some normal s--- you see in jail. This is some rich s---,” one of the men told NBC News. “It looks crazy, but again, it’s Diddy.”

The report describes a roster of alleged chores and comforts. Inmates cooked curry chicken, pizza and empanadas on a makeshift heating element, according to the sources. They cleaned his toilet and shower area, made his bed, did his laundry, and held his phone and fan mail. Another inmate gave him Chinese-style massages, the men said. “After a while, I got tired of cooking,” one man who prepared meals recalled to NBC News. “He started going to the Jamaicans.” One source put the dynamic this way: “He’s a billionaire. People are in awe of him. Money is power, especially behind bars.”

Contraband claims went beyond the phone. NBC News reported alleged use of a jailbroken tablet to watch movies, including Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning, and alleged purchases of the antidepressant Remeron, known on the prison black market as “rem-roms.” Smuggled Hennessy was shared among a small circle and brought in by guards, sources said. “Hell yeah, I drank with him,” one inmate told the outlet of drinking the liquor with Combs.

Combs was convicted July 2, 2025, on two counts of transportation for prostitution and acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking. Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced him on Oct. 3, 2025, to 50 months, with credit for 12 months already served. He is held at the New Jersey facility.

Combs’ spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, gave the same statement to NBC News and to USA TODAY’s KiMi Robinson. “The continued scrutiny of every mundane detail of Sean Combs’s life in prison has reached the point where the media characterizes ordinary prison life as news,” the statement said. “The only real news is that Sean continues to serve his sentence within the rules and he patiently awaits the court’s decision on his appeal.”