Sean “Diddy” Combs is fighting back against a lawsuit filed against him by a former employee, accusing those who filed it of attempting to pressure him into a settlement by publicizing salacious allegations.
NBC News has obtained a motion filed by the embattled star's legal team to dismiss a lawsuit filed by attorney Tyrone Blackburn on behalf of his client, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones. The motion was filed in the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday.
Jones alleged in a lawsuit filed in February that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him while he worked for the mogul from September 2022 to November 2023. Jones is seeking $30 million in damages.
An amended complaint filed in Jones’ case in March then accused Combs of being part of a “RICO enterprise” and said he was involved in a “sex trafficking venture.” A RICO enterprise is one in which people or groups act together to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is meant to target organized crime.
The motion alleges that Jones’ suit is an attempt to “dress up a run-of-the-mill commercial disagreement as a salacious RICO conspiracy.” It alleges that the complaint failed to establish the criteria for a RICO case and that the lawsuit lacks standing.
“Running to nearly 100 pages, it includes countless tall tales, shameless celebrity namedrops, and irrelevant images,” the motion said of the lawsuit.
It also accused Jones of failing to provide specific instances with dates as to the alleged sexual harassment he endured while working for Combs. The motion described Jones’ allegations as vague.
Combs has denied Jones’ allegations.
“Mr. Jones’s lawsuit is pure fiction — a shameless attempt to create media hype and extract a quick settlement,” Combs’ lawyer Erica Wolff said in a statement Monday. “There was no RICO conspiracy and Mr. Jones was not threatened, groomed, assaulted, or trafficked.”
“We look forward to proving — in a court of law — that all of Mr. Jones’s claims are made-up and must be dismissed,” Wolff added.
Blackburn said Monday that he has not had the chance to read the motion but that the allegations by Combs' attorney in the filing described to him by NBC News are untrue.
"This is clearly a billing exercise by individuals who are late to the game and are attempting to fill their pockets before their client is indicted," Blackburn said.
Combs attorneys wrote in Monday’s motion that Jones’ “true purpose is to generate media hype and exploit it to extract a settlement.” It goes on to say that this is “no surprise” given that Blackburn was referred to a grievance committee earlier this year.
A judge referred a concern against Blackburn to the Southern District of New York’s Grievances Committee in April, the motion says, after what appeared to be a “pattern” of cases with apparent jurisdiction issues. The case in which the concern originated was not related to Combs.
According to an opinion from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, Blackburn told the court he had done a database search which showed the defendant in that case to have a New York address. The defendant did not live in the state.
But five other cases in which Blackburn had jurisdiction issues prompted Cote to make the grievance referral.
“A reasonable inference from Blackburn’s pattern of behavior is that he improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly,” Cote wrote.
Blackburn told NBC News in April that no grievance has been filed against him. NBC News has inquired about the status of the referral with the court.
He added Monday that Combs' attorneys are fixated on a quote from a filing in an unrelated opinion in an unrelated case.
"If you don't do salacious s---, I won't have salacious things to file," Blackburn said.
Blackburn has filed three other suits against Combs since last year.
The attorney also represents Liza Gardner, who alleged that Combs sexually assaulted her in 1990 or 1991, when she was a 16-year-old. Gardner’s case was originally filed in November in New York Supreme Court but was discontinued and refiled in New Jersey earlier this year.
According to the refiled complaint, Gardner was taken by car service from New York City to an apartment in New Jersey where the alleged assault occurred. Combs has denied Gardner’s allegations.
In May, Blackburn filed another lawsuit against Combs claiming his client April Lampros was sexually assaulted four times by the Grammy winner from 1994 to the early 2000s. Combs has denied the allegations and has also filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit.
Combs was also named in a suit Blackburn filed this year alleging the rapper’s son sexually assaulted a woman named Grace O’Marcaigh. She alleged that she was working as a steward for Combs’ 2022 New Year’s Eve yacht party at the time of the assault.
He is not accused of sexually assaulting O’Marcaigh in that case but is being sued for premises liability as the person who chartered the yacht and for aiding and abetting his son in the alleged assault.
A lawyer for Combs and his son called that suit “lewd and meritless,” adding that it was “filled with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we’ve come to expect” from Blackburn.
In a lawsuit filed in November, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura accused Combs of rape, sex trafficking and physical assault throughout their relationship, which lasted roughly 11 years. The lawsuit was settled the following day.
Combs denied the abuse in a statement via his attorney at the time. But CNN published surveillance video in May of Combs violently assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Combs issued an apology on his Instagram page saying he was disgusted with himself and described the situation as one of the “darkest” times of his life.
“My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” Combs said. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
Combs is currently the subject of a federal investigation by the Southern District of New York. His homes in Los Angeles, Miami and New York were raided in March by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations.
Two sources familiar with Combs’ ongoing legal troubles confirmed to NBC News in July that a federal grand jury was hearing evidence as part of the investigation, but no criminal charges have been filed against him. At the time, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, and Combs’ lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
Combs is the subject of several lawsuits filed by other attorneys that have accused him of physical and emotional abuse, which he has also denied.
