Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ authorized group filed a $50-million defamation lawsuit Wednesday in opposition to a person they mentioned had falsely claimed to own movies implicating the 55-year-old producer in sexual assaults on eight celebrities.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court docket in New York Metropolis, accuses Courtney Burgess and his lawyer, Ariel Mitchell, of fabricating “outrageous lies” as a part of an effort to doubtlessly revenue off of the media frenzy round Combs, who was indicted in September on sex-trafficking costs.
Combs can be suing Nextstar Media Group, the mum or dad firm of tv community NewsNation, for airing Burgess’ allegations with out conducting correct due diligence.
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is taking a stand in opposition to the malicious falsehoods which were fabricated and amplified by people searching for to revenue at his expense,” Erica Wolff, a lawyer for Combs, mentioned in a press release.
“These defendants have willfully fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the reality,” Wolff continued. “Their falsehoods have poisoned public notion and contaminated the jury pool. This criticism ought to function a warning that such intentional falsehoods, which undermine Mr. Combs’s proper to a good trial, will now not be tolerated.”
Combs is presently in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Middle and has pleaded not responsible to sex-trafficking costs lodged in opposition to him after his arrest in September. He has remained incarcerated, awaiting a Could 5 trial, after judges refused to grant him bail. He has denied all allegations.
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The lawsuit alleges that Burgess started giving interviews with reporters, social media personalities and true crime podcasters after Combs’ arrest, claiming he had illicit movies of Combs “concerned within the sexual assault of celebrities and minors.”
Burgess claimed to have been given flash drives with incriminating proof by the late actor and mannequin Kim Porter, a longtime companion of Combs and mom of 4 of his kids. Burgess and Mitchell allegedly repeated the allegations to information shops, together with NewsNation, in response to the go well with.
The go well with references a NewsNation section that aired in October 2024 with Burgess and Mitchell. Burgess repeated his earlier claims within the interview, whereas claiming that the NewsNation host knew the eight celebrities who appeared on eight totally different movies.
The lawsuit alleges that the NewsNation host knew this data was false “or, at a minimal, recklessly disregarded whether or not the statements have been true or false as a result of she had by no means seen such movies (as a result of they don’t exist).”
An Oct. 24 Attwood Unleashed podcast look with Burgess can be talked about within the go well with. Throughout his look, Burgess claims that Porter approached him via a mediator to supply him with supplies and says that she additionally referred to Combs as “Lucifer.”
Burgess additionally publicly claimed that Porter gave him a replica of her memoir and commenced promoting it on Amazon. The memoir was faraway from the web site after it was denounced by Porter’s household.
Combs’ attorneys declare that Burgess has by no means met Combs and doesn’t know any member of his household. Some individuals near Porter informed The New York Occasions for a narrative printed in November that they’d by no means heard of Burgess and doubted his claims. Burgess later acknowledged that he doesn’t know Combs personally.
“Defendants made these false and defamatory statements in unhealthy religion, as a part of a deliberate effort to break Mr. Combs’s popularity, undermine his enterprise and, by portray him as debauched and a pedophile, to poison the general public’s notion of him and deprive him of a good trial,” Combs’ authorized group mentioned.
Combs is suing for defamation for an quantity to be decided by trial, however asking for a minimum of $50 million and demanding a jury trial.
In a assertion to Folks, Mitchell known as the lawsuit “a pathetic ploy to silence victims and individuals who arise for victims.”
“Diddy has time to sue however refuses to simply accept service for the lawsuits already filed in opposition to him,” Mitchell mentioned. “I sit up for countersuing and making certain the court docket punishes not solely Diddy but in addition his attorneys who filed this pathetic lawsuit for this frivolous and meritless submitting.”
NewsNation has not responded to the lawsuit as of this writing.
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— With recordsdata from The Related Press
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