Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ authorized workforce filed a $50-million defamation lawsuit Wednesday towards a person they stated 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 City, accuses Courtney Burgess and his lawyer, Ariel Mitchell, of fabricating “outrageous lies” as a part of an effort to probably revenue off of the media frenzy round Combs, who was indicted in September on sex-trafficking prices.
Combs can be suing Nextstar Media Group, the father or mother firm of tv community NewsNation, for airing Burgess’ allegations with out conducting correct due diligence.
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is taking a stand against the malicious falsehoods that have been fabricated and amplified by individuals seeking to profit at his expense,” Erica Wolff, a lawyer for Combs, stated in an announcement.
“These defendants have willfully fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the truth,” Wolff continued. “Their falsehoods have poisoned public perception and contaminated the jury pool. This complaint should serve as a warning that such intentional falsehoods, which undermine Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial, will no longer be tolerated.”
Combs is at the moment in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center and has pleaded not responsible to sex-trafficking prices lodged towards him after his arrest in September. He has remained incarcerated, awaiting a May 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 “involved in 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 associate of Combs and mom of 4 of his youngsters. Burgess and Mitchell allegedly repeated the allegations to information shops, together with NewsNation, in keeping with 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 info was false “or, at a minimum, recklessly disregarded whether the statements were true or false because she had never seen such videos (because they do not exist).”
An Oct. 24 Attwood Unleashed podcast look with Burgess can be talked about within the go well with. During 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 duplicate 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’ legal professionals declare that Burgess has by no means met Combs and doesn’t know any member of his household. Some individuals near Porter advised The New York Times 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 bad faith, as part of a deliberate effort to damage Mr. Combs’s reputation, undermine his business and, by painting him as debauched and a pedophile, to poison the public’s perception of him and deprive him of a fair trial,” Combs’ authorized workforce stated.
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 People, Mitchell known as the lawsuit “a pathetic ploy to silence victims and people who stand up for victims.”
“Diddy has time to sue but refuses to accept service for the lawsuits already filed against him,” Mitchell stated. “I look forward to countersuing and ensuring the court punishes not only Diddy but also his lawyers who filed this pathetic lawsuit for this frivolous and meritless filing.”
NewsNation has not responded to the lawsuit as of this writing.
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— With information from The Associated Press
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