Diddy files motion to dismiss Lil Rod's lawsuit

Rap and fashion mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a motion to dismiss Lil Rod's explosive civil lawsuit on Monday. The suit accuses Combs of promoting him and subjecting him to several criminal offenses, including drug trafficking, sexual harassment and serving drug-laced cocktails at his infamous parties.

The motion in the civil case Rodney Jones v. Sean Combs was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by defendants Sean Combs, Love Records, Inc. and Combs Global. Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is also a defendant in the case, as are Universal Music boss Lucian GraingeIt and several other powerful executives. The motion seeks to dismiss with prejudice the second amended complaint filed in February, arguing that Jones is only seeking unpaid earnings from his work with Diddy and that his attorney is fanning the flames of the dispute behind the scenes.

In 2022, Rodney Jones Jr., the musician and producer known as Lil Rod, was hired by Combs to work on his 2023 album. The love album: Off the GridDiddy's first studio album since 2006. Jones says he lived with Diddy in three different homes for over a year and witnessed and witnessed numerous offensive events, including his sexual assault, being forced to perform sexual acts by Combs, being coerced into soliciting sex workers, being drugged, humiliated, and being repeatedly groped on the anus and genitals by Gooding while in Diddy's presence.

Jones' case was filed in federal court in New York on February 26, and he is seeking $30 million in damages. In the amended complaint, filed shortly after the original suit was filed, Jones added further details, stating that it was a “RICO entity” that repeatedly “failed to adequately monitor, warn or supervise” Combs as Jones suffered abuses under him. The allegations sent shockwaves through the hip-hop world, sparking a cottage industry of speculation about what may or may not be going on behind the gates of Diddy's homes and at his supposedly hedonistic parties.

This was formally contradicted on Monday in a lawsuit filed by the Manhattan-based law firm Sher Tremonte.

“Mr. Jones' lawsuit is pure fiction – a shameless attempt to create a media frenzy and get a quick settlement,” Combs' attorney Erica Wolff said in a statement Monday. “There was no RICO conspiracy and Mr. Jones was not threatened, manipulated, attacked or trafficked. We look forward to proving in court that all of Mr. Jones' claims are fabricated and must be dismissed.”

The motion calls Jones' second amended complaint “his third attempt to disguise an ordinary commercial dispute as a salacious RICO conspiracy” and that the 100-page complaint filed earlier this year contains “numerous tall tales, shameless celebrity name-dropping and irrelevant images.” It says Jones' personal injury claim collapses on basic facts, such as where and when it allegedly occurred.”

The motion continues: “Despite all its exaggerations and sensationalist theatrics, the Second Amended Complaint fails to assert a single viable claim against any of the Combs defendants. The SAC is full of legally meaningless allegations and blatant falsehoods. Its real goal is to generate media hype and exploit it to force a settlement.”

In the motion, Sher Tremonte's lawyers characterize what they consider to be false allegations and lies in the lawsuit as the work of the plaintiff's Brooklyn-based attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, whom they accuse of preying on wealthy clients to embarrass them and get a quick payday. The allegations against Combs are “no surprise,” they explain, noting the fact that Blackburn was recently referred to that court's Grievance Committee for allegedly regularly making “impermissible filings.”[ing] cases in federal court to attract media attention, embarrass defendants with offensive allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”

The lawyers then attack Jones' credibility, claiming that he “took a page from his legal style” and posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) in which “he, along with an artist known as 'Uncle Murda,' laughs about this lawsuit (despite his allegations of 'severe emotional distress'), demands that Mr. Combs pay him 'the money by Monday,' and warns, 'I'm from Chicago, we're not in this business for fun.'”

“As with the SAC, Jones' videotaped threats on social media are part of a calculated effort to promote his personal brand and profit from notoriety,” the motion states. “Such tactics have no place in federal court.”

In addition to dismissing the sexual assault claim, Combs' attorneys are asking that a lawsuit be dismissed alleging Combs' repeated organized criminal conduct, his liability for sexual advances by third parties, and the emotional distress alleged by the plaintiff. And as for the claim of breach of an oral contract, Combs' attorneys wrote that the lawsuit is time-barred.

In response, Blackburn described the filing in a statement to Deadline.

“It's a feeble attempt to line their pockets before he's indicted and they decide to run away, just like his five previous attorneys,” Blackburn told the outlet. “As for Cotes' opinion, if her client isn't engaging in objectionable conduct, I wouldn't have anything objectionable to file. I pick my clients, not their facts.”

Jones has 15 days, or until September 9, to respond to Monday's motion to dismiss.

Combs has denied all allegations made against him in various lawsuits filed over the past few years.