Photo Credit: Tingey Law
Diddy’s attorneys move to dismiss ex-producer Lil Rod’s $30 million sexual assault lawsuit, citing ‘legally meaningless allegations and blatant falsehoods.’
Sean “Diddy” Combs should seemingly try to lie low amid the federal investigation after his Los Angeles and Miami homes were raided by Homeland Security investigators earlier this year. But instead, the disgraced rapper and producer’s attorneys have moved to have his former producer Lil Rod’s $30 million sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit dismissed, calling the producer’s complaint an “attempt to dress up a run of the mill commercial disagreement as a salacious RICO conspiracy.”
Rodney Jones Jr., better known as producer Lil Rod, with whom Diddy worked on his most recent release, The Love Album, initially filed his lawsuit in February. “It includes countless tall tales, shameless celebrity namedrops, and irrelevant images,” Combs’ lawyers write. “Despite all its hyperbole and lurid theatrics, [the complaint] fails to state a single viable claim against any of the Combs Defendants.”
“Replete with legally meaningless allegations and blatant falsehoods, the [lawsuit’s] true purpose is to generate media hype and exploit it to extract a settlement — no surprise, given that Jones’ attorney was recently referred to this Court’s Grievance Committee for engaging in a ‘pattern’ of ‘improperly fil[ing] cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly,” Combs’ attorneys assert.
But Jones’ lawyer, the Brooklyn-based Tyrone Blackburn, isn’t the least bit concerned about Combs’ attempts to have the lawsuit dismissed, calling it a ruse. “This is nothing more than a billing exercise by Sean Combs’ latest set of lawyers,” Blackburn told Deadline. “It is a weak attempt to fill their pockets before he is indicted, and they decide to haul ass, just like his five previous lawyers did.”
Blackburn added that “if their client does not engage in salacious behavior, I would not have anything salacious to file. I pick my clients; I do not pick their facts.”
The Department of Justice has until September 9 to respond to the motion to dismiss. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to divulge more information about the federal investigation involving Combs, but explained back in March that Homeland Security Investigations New York was working with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and local law enforcement.
