Sean 'Diddy' Combs Wants $30 Million Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking Lawsuit By His Former Producer Dismissed; Lil Rod's Lawyers Deride Complaint as 'Weak'

Sean Combs is still waiting for the Justice Department's next move after the feds raided the accused and now-scorned “Missing You” singer's Los Angeles and Miami homes earlier this year. However, Combs went on the offensive Monday in hopes of getting his estranged husband arrested. Love album Producer Lil Rod's $30 million sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit has been dismissed.

“Jones’ Second Amended Complaint is his third attempt to disguise an ordinary business disagreement as a salacious RICO conspiracy,” attorneys at Combs’ Sher Tremonte LLP said in a legal brief supporting the motion to dismiss the action first filed by Rodney Jones Jr., aka Lil Rod, in February 2024.

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Read Sean Combs's filing to have Lil Rod's $30 million sexual assault case dismissed here

“At nearly 100 pages, it includes countless tall tales, shameless celebrity names, and unrelated images,” the document adds. “Yet for all its hyperbole and sordid theater, SAC fails to articulate a single viable claim against any of the Combs defendants. Filled with legally meaningless allegations and outright lies, SAC’s real goal is to generate hype and exploit it to secure a settlement—not surprising, given that Jones’s attorney was recently referred to this Court’s Grievance Committee for engaging in a “pattern” of “improper filing of complaints.”[ing] “Cases brought in federal court are designed to attract media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure them to settle their disputes quickly.”

Represented by Brooklyn-based attorney Tyrone Blackburn, Jones alleged in his initial complaint that during the lengthy recording of the Top 20's debut The Love Album: Off the Grid, Combs tried to “convince him to agree to a homosexual relationship… a normal practice in the music industry.” Cuba Gooding Jr. is also charged in the case, along with Combs. Several music industry executives, including Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and record labels including Motown Records, were also charged, but were dismissed from the case several months ago.

Jones also claimed that Combs, who still goes by the name Diddy, was “controlling and demanding,” forcing him to have sex with prostitutes and submit to constant touching of his genitals. Citing the existence of a “RICO enterprise” that “repeatedly failed to adequately monitor, warn or supervise” Combs, the producer claims he suffered from possibly being drugged, raped, ritually humiliated and has yet to be paid more than $50,000 for his work on the film, which is set to be released on September 15, 2023. Love save.

Already hit with numerous other sexual assault charges, including one quickly settled by his longtime ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, late last year, Combs' lawyers here forcefully attack the most sordid parts of Jones' allegations.

“Jones’ baseless attempt to hold Mr. Combs liable for the alleged sexual advances of third parties (which Jones claims he rejected) based on a premises liability theory must fail because he fails to allege any facts demonstrating that any alleged assault was foreseeable by Mr. Combs, that plaintiff suffered an injury, or that Mr. Combs exercised control over the alleged perpetrator or the premises,” the artist’s filing states today.

Lashing out at Combs, who has lost his powerful defense attorney Shawn Holley and other members of his team in recent months, Jones' attorney Blackburn portrays today's motion to dismiss as a ruse, at best.

“This is nothing more than a billing exercise by Sean Combs’s last attorneys,” Blackburn told Deadline on Monday. “It’s a feeble attempt to line their pockets before he’s indicted, and they decide to blow off steam, just like his five previous attorneys did. As for Cotes’ opinion, if their client isn’t engaging in lewd behavior, I wouldn’t have anything lewd to file. I pick my clients, I don’t pick their facts.”

To that end, with the Justice Department’s sword of Damocles hanging over Combs, Jones and Blackburn have until September 9 to respond to today’s motion to dismiss. It’s worth noting that Combs has denied all of the charges against him in the various trials — though he later pulled himself together and corrected the record, issuing a profuse apology after video of his beating of Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 was released to many.

As for the federal raid last spring, the government hasn’t provided much more information, though rumors of charges have surfaced from various sources. “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York conducted enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said March 26 as federal agents continued to be at Combs’ homes in California and Florida during coordinated raids on both coasts.

“We will provide further information as it becomes available.”

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