Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accuses documentary of defamation while in custody over sex trafficking case
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Sean “Diddy” Combs is suing NBC Universal and its streaming service, Peacock, and Ample Entertainment, accusing them of defaming him in a documentary that ties him to crimes more heinous than the ones that have put him in federal custody without bail.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New York, the hip-hop mogul accuses the documentary, “Diddy: Making of a Bad Boy,” of peddling in an “outrageous set of fresh lies and conspiracy theories,” including alleged serial murder and the rapes of minors, and is seeking $100 million.
“The Documentary includes numerous false and defamatory statements that Defendants NBCU and Ample knew were false or published with reckless disregard as to whether they were false or not,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Indeed, the entire premise of the Documentary assumes that Mr. Combs has committed numerous heinous crimes, including serial murder, rape of minors, and sex trafficking of minors, and attempts to crudely psychologize him. It maliciously and baselessly jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Combs is a ‘monster’ and ‘an embodiment of Lucifer’ with ‘a lot of similarities’ to [accused child sex trafficker] Jeffrey Epstein,” who died in 2019.
Combs is charged with three federal crimes — racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting someone across state lines for the purpose of prostitution — and has pleaded not guilty to each of them. The 55-year-old entrepreneur is set to go on trial May 5 based on a newly expanded indictment that alleges the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment long used his empire to coerce victims into sex in gatherings known as “freak-offs.”
None of the allegations involves minors or murder. However, he faces multiple lawsuits from individuals claiming they were sexually abused as minors — something he has strenuously denied.
The music mogul’s sexual mistreatment of women dating back decades was aided and abetted by a complex and vast network of enablers, according to a Times review of court filings and interviews with current and former business associates.
At the heart of the defamation claim is the allegations tied to the death of Kim Porter, the mother of three of his children. Porter’s official cause of death was pneumonia.
According to the suit, the documentary accuses Combs of killing Porter, Christopher Wallace (known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie), Andrew Harrell, Dwight Arrington Myers (known as Heavy D) and attempting to kill Albert Joseph Brown (known as Al B. Sure).
“It shamelessly advances conspiracy theories that lack any foundation in reality, repeatedly insinuating that Mr. Combs is a serial killer because it cannot be a ‘coincidence’ that multiple people in Mr. Combs’ orbit have died,” the suit claims.
In the 90-minute documentary, one interviewee, Sure, who also had a child with Porter, described her death as a murder before stating, “Am I supposed to say ‘allegedly?’”
NBC did not immediately comment on the lawsuit. But to prove defamation, Combs’ lawyers must prove to a judge or jury that the defendants in the case knew that the statements were defamatory in nature and were false, or they published them with reckless disregard for the truth.
Erica Wolff, Combs’ attorney, said “in making and broadcasting these falsehoods, among others, defendants seek only to capitalize on the public’s appetite for scandal without any regard for the truth and at the expense of Mr. Combs’ right to a fair trial.”
She said the lawsuit seeks to hold NBC “accountable for the extraordinary damage their reckless statements have caused.”
An expert explains how a perpetrator might entice and control victims, and what Combs’ indictment means about our changing views on how sex trafficking works.
The lawsuit comes as Combs faces more than 40 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Combs was arrested in September after a nearly yearlong investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
The indictment against Combs lists several victims, including a “Victim-1,” whose allegations mirrored those of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a singer and former girlfriend of Combs who sued him in 2023. Combs settled that lawsuit.
The expanded indictment refers to “Victim-2” and “Victim-3,” but does not reveal their identities.
It alleges Combs “used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims, including but not limited to three female victims,” to engage in commercial sex acts.
Prosecutors allege that, as part of a sex-trafficking scheme, Combs and his entourage engaged in violence, abuse, arson and kidnapping. During one kidnapping, Combs allegedly brandished a firearm.
Combs’ attorneys have unsuccessfully sought to exclude evidence they say was leaked, including a 2016 video that shows Combs beating Ventura in a hallway of the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles.
The video, obtained and published by CNN last year, confirmed at least some of the physical abuse allegations against the singer detailed in a lawsuit filed in November.
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