LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a man they said had falsely claimed to possess videos implicating the music mogul in sexual assaults on eight celebrities.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York City, accuses Courtney Burgess and his lawyer, Ariel Mitchell, of fabricating “outrageous lies” as part of an effort to potentially profit off of the media frenzy around Combs, who was indicted in September on sex trafficking charges.
Combs also sued Nexstar Media, saying its cable news network, NewsNation, aired Burgess’ allegations without looking into whether they were true. The videos, the lawsuit claimed, simply don’t exist.
“These defendants have willfully fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the truth,” said Erica Wolff, an attorney for Combs. “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.”
Burgess and Mitchell did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press requesting comment. A phone call to Mitchell was not answered. A spokesperson for Nexstar Media Group declined to comment.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges lodged against him after his September arrest. He has remained incarcerated, awaiting a May 5 trial, after judges refused to grant him bail.
After Combs was arrested, Burgess began giving interviews with reporters, social media personalities and true crime podcasters in which he claimed to have been given flash drives with incriminating evidence by the late actor and model Kim Porter, a longtime partner of Combs and mother of four of his children.
But the videos Burgess claims to possess have never become public. Some people close to Porter told The New York Times for a story published in November that they had never heard of Burgess and doubted his claims. Burgess has acknowledged that he doesn’t know Combs personally. Federal prosecutors have not publicly identified Burgess as being involved in the criminal case.
In interviews, Burgess said law enforcement seized the videos from his home. Mitchell also told reporters Burgess handed over the drives to the federal government.
The lawsuit said both claims were “completely false.”
“No such video was ever turned over to the government because no such video exists,” the lawsuit said.
