Smoking Gun to LA Times: "Don't Believe the Hype."

Hmmm...

Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton said today he will launch an internal investigation into the authenticity of documents used in a story last week asserting that the newspaper had uncovered new evidence implicating associates of rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs in a bloody 1994 assault on hip-hop superstar Tupac Shakur.

Stanton ordered the review after the editor of the celebrity-centric website, The Smoking Gun, told the newspaper that he had reason to doubt The Times' account and in particular the FBI records that were supposed to buttress the story...

[snip]

...Although The Times has not identified the source of the purported FBI reports, The Smoking Gun story asserts that they were created by convicted con man James Sabatino, who the website contends was a starry-eyed music fan with a long rap sheet and a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.

The purported FBI reports were filed by Sabatino with a federal court in Miami four months ago in connection with a $16-million lawsuit he filed against Combs. Sabatino, who is serving time in prison for fraud, claims he is due the money for a business deal gone bad.

"The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries," the report on the website says.