Looks like the Los Angeles Times got hosed when Pulitzer winner (though not-always-trusted journalist) Chuck Philips accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of knowing about a 1994 attack on Tupac Shakur before it happened. Diddy, of course, denied the charge. As did the family of Chris Wallace/Notorious B.I.G. when Philips earlier accused the rapper of putting the hit on Tupac in ‘96.

And they had good reason: It’s likely none of it was true. The Times got its info from FBI documents that are now being labeled as fakes, concocted by jailed con man James Sabatino, who tried to fictitiously insert himself in the lives of hip-hop heads.

Diligent reporting from The Smoking Gun reveals the docs aren’t in any FBI database and that Sabtatino – “an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs’s trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion ‘Suge’ Knight” – was able to distribute them himself by conveniently redacting the names of the federal agents working on the case. Too bad there are other ways to search for the files in the FBI’s records and, low and behold, they don’t turn up.

And also, just like the documents involved in the fall of Dan Rather, their physical elements are a giveaway. Cue an internal investigation at the LAT! And, maybe, a major libel suit from Diddy!

Additionally, an examination of the three documents revealed that the bodies of the respective “302s” were actually created on a typewriter (the “frame” of the reports is consistent with an authentic “302″ template). In some instances, you can see where one letter was typed on top of an existing character, a so-called overstrike. In an interview, Bruce Mouw, a former FBI supervisor who headed the bureau’s pursuit of John Gotti, estimated that agents ceased using typewriters about 30 years ago.

Riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, the purported “302″ documents vary sharply from standard FBI reports in terms of phraseology and use of certain acronyms, according to several law enforcement sources who examined the documents at TSG’s request.

For example, the reports contain the acronyms “TNU,” which apparently is short for “true name unknown,” and “NFI,” short for “no further information.” Two ex-FBI agents said that they had never seen those acronyms in bureau reports. Both men also alerted to how the reports were dated, with month, day, and year set off with periods, instead of the customary slashes.

Most telling, though, are the obvious similarities (type size, font, line spacing, individual character renderings) between the purported “302s” and certain court filings created by Sabatino while he has been incarcerated at Allenwood (he was transferred last May from a Florida prison to the high-security penitentiary in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains). As with all other Bureau of Prisons (BoP) facilities, Allenwood provides inmates with access to photocopying machines, office supplies, and typewriters, according to the BoP’s 2008 Legal Resource Guide. Inmates, the guide states, are “permitted a reasonable amount of time…to conduct their own legal research and to prepare legal documents.” [TSG]