Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Recordsdata $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit Towards Accuser for Exposing Alleged Intercourse Tapes with Celebs

Sean “Diddy” Combs has filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit towards accuser Courtney Burgess, his lawyer Ariel Mitchell and Nextstar Media Group, the dad or mum firm of tv community NewsNation.

Combs’ attorneys filed the lawsuit within the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, Jan. 22, alleging the defendants intentionally fabricated and amplified false claims about him for monetary achieve, and that NewsNation broadcasted the allegations with out conducting correct due diligence. The criticism says these actions have brought about Combs financial and reputational hurt, in addition to tainted his proper to a good trial with an neutral jury.

Combs, 55, is at present in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to have interaction in prostitution expenses. He has denied the allegations.

The lawsuit first alleges Burgess claimed he had movies of Combs “concerned within the sexual assault of celebrities and minors.” Burgess and Mitchell allegedly repeated the allegations to a number of information shops, together with NewsNation, the submitting states.

Combs’ attorneys declare as a result of the alleged tapes do not exist, Mitchell and Burgess’ statements that they possessed footage “had been both knowingly blatant falsehoods or recklessly false statements.”

Burgess additionally allegedly claimed that Kim Porter, Combs’ ex and mom of 4 of his kids who died in 2018, gave him a duplicate of her memoir in addition to movies that present Combs “sexually assaulting inebriated celebrities and minors.” Combs’ attorneys insist that Burgess and Combs have by no means met, and Burgess doesn’t have any affiliation with Combs’ household.

Combs’ lawyer Erica Wolff beforehand instructed PEOPLE that the memoir is “faux,” “offensive” and “a shameless try and revenue from tragedy.” Combs and Porter’s 4 kids additionally shut down claims of the memoir earlier than it was faraway from Amazon.

Combs additionally named Mitchell within the lawsuit, noting that the lawyer filed a number of lawsuits towards him, together with one on behalf of an grownup entertainer who alleged she had been intercourse trafficked by Combs.

“Thus far, regardless that Mitchell has not served both of these lawsuits, she has spoken about them extensively to the media,” the lawsuit claims.

The courtroom paperwork reference a NewsNation phase that aired in late September the place Mitchell allegedly “falsely said” that tapes of Combs in compromising positions with different celebrities have been leaked all through Hollywood.

Mitchell additionally alleged that folks had been unknowingly being recorded in Combs’ dwelling.

The NewsNation host allegedly instructed Mitchell in response, “[I]t feels like there was most likely lots of hidden cameras as properly,” regardless of having “no evidentiary help” of Mitchell’s allegations.

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“NewsNation, upon data and perception, performed no investigation earlier than broadcasting the false allegations, although it simply may have carried out so,” the lawsuit alleges, including that the community didn’t attain out to Combs’ representatives for remark earlier than airing the phase.

The submitting additionally alleges that Burgess and Mitchell made comparable statements to reporters on the day Combs appeared earlier than a grand jury in his intercourse crimes case, the place they allegedly “continued to repeat false and defamatory claims that Burgess possessed movies depicting Mr. Combs sexually assaulting celebrities, together with minors.” Burgess served as a witness for the grand jury listening to.

Mitchell additionally appeared in Peacock’s Diddy: The Making of a Dangerous Boy, the place she described Combs as “a person who has carried out terrible issues to a whole bunch, possibly 1000’s of individuals,” in accordance with the courtroom paperwork.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that the defendants have every profited from their public allegations towards Combs, with Burgess making a living “from his faux Kim Porter memoir,” and Mitchell “promot[ing] herself within the media” as she makes the allegations towards Combs. It alleges that NewsNation’s airing of Mitchell and Burgess’ allegations has elevated the variety of viewers for the community.

“Defendants made these false and defamatory statements in unhealthy religion, as a part of a deliberate effort to wreck Mr. Combs’s status, 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 alleges.

Combs is suing for defamation for an quantity to be decided at trial, however at least $50 million, together with punitive damages. He’s demanding a jury trial.

“That is only a pathetic ploy to silence victims and individuals who get up for victims. Diddy has time to sue however refuses to simply accept service for the lawsuits already filed towards him,” Mitchell tells PEOPLE. “I look ahead to countersuing and guaranteeing the courtroom punishes not solely Diddy but in addition his legal professionals who filed this pathetic lawsuit for this frivolous and meritless submitting.” 

“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is taking a stand towards the malicious falsehoods which were fabricated and amplified by people looking for to revenue at his expense,” mentioned Wolff, Combs’ lawyer at Sher Tremonte LLP, tells PEOPLE of the brand new lawsuit. “These defendants have willfully fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the reality. 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 not be tolerated.”

PEOPLE reached out to NewsNation for remark.