LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a defamation suit Wednesday against a man they said falsely claimed to own videos implicating the music mogul in sexual assaults on eight celebrities.
The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, accuses Courtney Burgess and her lawyer, Ariel Mitchell, of fabricating “outrageous lies” in an attempt to potentially profit from the media frenzy surrounding Combs, who was indicted in September on sex trafficking charges.
Combs also sued Nexstar Media, claiming its cable news network, NewsNation, aired Burgess’ allegations without verifying whether they were true. According to the lawsuit, the videos simply do not exist.
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“These defendants deliberately fabricated and disseminated outrageous lies with reckless disregard for the truth,” said Erica Wolff, Combs’ attorney. “Their lies poisoned public perception and contaminated the jury. This complaint should serve as a warning that such intentional falsehoods, which undermine Mr. Combs’ right to a fair trial, will no longer be tolerated.
Burgess and Mitchell did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment. A phone call to Mitchell went unanswered. A spokesperson for Nexstar Media Group declined to comment.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges against him following his arrest in September. He remained incarcerated, awaiting a trial on May 5, after judges refused to grant him bail.
After Combs’ arrest, Burgess began giving true crime interviews with journalists, social media personalities and podcasters in which he claimed to have received USB drives containing incriminating evidence from the late actor and model Kim Porter, Combs’ longtime partner and mother of four. of his children.
But the videos Burgess claims to own never became public. Some people close to Porter told The New York Times in an article published in November that they had never heard of Burgess and doubted his claims. Burgess acknowledged that he did not 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 that Burgess turned over the disks to the federal government.
The lawsuit said both claims were “completely false.”
“No such video has ever been turned over to the government because no such video exists,” the lawsuit states.
