Diddy Files Motion to Dismiss Lil Rod Lawsuit, Lawyer Calls Grooming, Assault Claims “Pure Fiction”

Rap and fashion mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the explosive civil case filed by Lil Rod, which accused Combs of grooming him and exposing him to several crimes, including drug trafficking, sexual assault and serving drug-laced cocktails at his infamous parties.

The motion in the Rodney Jones v. Sean Combs civil case was filed in the United States District Court in 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 is Universal Music honcho Lucian GraingeIt, along with various other powerful executives. The motion seeks to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint filed in February with prejudice, claiming that Jones is merely after unpaid income from his work with Diddy and that his attorney is fanning the flames of the dispute from 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 Grid, Diddy’s first studio record since 2006. For over a year, Jones says he spent time living with Diddy in three different homes and experienced and witnessed multiple salacious events that include his sexual assault, being forced by Combs to engage in sex acts, being made to solicit sex workers, being drugged, humiliated and repeatedly groped on his anus and genitals by Gooding while in Diddy’s orbit. 

Jones’ case was filed on Feb. 26 in New York federal court and he seeks $30 million in restitution. In the amended filing, which came shortly after the complaint was initially entered, Jones added further details, stating that a “RICO enterprise” exists which repeatedly “failed to adequately monitor, warn or supervise” Combs as Jones suffered abuse at his hands. The claims sent shockwaves through the hip-hop world and set off a cottage industry of speculating on what may or may not be happening behind the gates of Diddy’s homes and at his allegedly hedonistic parties. 

On Monday, this was formally countered in the filing from Sher Tremonte, a Manhattan-based law firm.

“Mr. Jones’s lawsuit is pure fiction — a shameless attempt to create media hype and extract a quick settlement,” Combs’ lawyer Erica Wolff said in a statement on Monday. “There was no RICO conspiracy and Mr. Jones was not threatened, groomed, assaulted or trafficked. We look forward to proving – in a court of law – that all of Mr. Jones’s claims are made up and must be dismissed.”

The motion calls Jones’ Second Amended Complaint “his third attempt to dress up a run-of-the-mill commercial disagreement as a salacious RICO conspiracy” and that the 100-page filing from earlier this year includes “countless tall tales, shameless celebrity name drops and irrelevant images.” It states that Jones’ assault claim falls on its face in terms of the basic facts, like where and when it allegedly transpired.”

The motion continues: “Yet, despite all its hyperbole and lurid theatrics, the Second Amended Complaint fails to state a single viable claim against any of the Combs defendants. Replete with legally meaningless allegations and blatant falsehoods, the SAC’s true purpose is to generate media hype and exploit it to extract a settlement.”

In the motion, Sher Tremonte attorneys characterize what they deem as false allegations and lies seen in the complaint as the work of the plaintiff’s Brooklyn-based attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who they accuse of chasing wealthy clients to embarrass them and seek a quick payday. The accusations surrounding Combs, they state, are “no surprise,” and bring up the fact that Blackburn was recently referred to this court’s Grievance Committee for engaging in an alleged pattern of “improperly fil[ing] cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”

The attorneys then go after Jones’ credibility, claiming that he has taken “a page from his lawyer’s playbook” by posting a video on X (formerly Twitter) in which “he, together with a performer known as ‘Uncle Murda,’ laughed about this lawsuit (despite his allegations of ‘severe emotional distress’), demanded Mr. Combs pay him ‘that money by Monday’ and warned: ‘I’m from Chicago, we don’t play about our business.’”  

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

In addition to seeing the dismissal of the sexual assault claim, Combs’ attorneys are asking that a claim of Combs’ pattern of racketeering activity, his liability for sexual advances from third parties and the plaintiff’s claimed suffering from emotional distress be tossed. And regarding the breach of oral contract allegation, attorneys for Combs wrote that the claim is beyond the statute of limitations.

In response, Blackburn called the filing a “billing exercise” for the attorneys who signed the motion, in a statement to 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 told the outlet. “Regarding Cotes’ opinion, 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.” 

Jones has 15 days, or until Sept. 9, to respond to Monday’s motion to dismiss.

Combs has denied all claims against him in the various lawsuits filed in recent years.