Diddy has filed to have Rodney Jones’ lawsuit dismissed, claiming Jones is merely trying to pressure Puff into a settlement.
Diddy Files to Have Lawsuit Dismissed
On Monday (Aug. 26), XXL obtained a motion filed by Diddy’s legal team in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The motion claims Jones’ disturbing lawsuit— which was amended in March to accuse Puff of sex trafficking and being part of a “RICO enterprise” — is nothing more than a “run-of-the-mill commercial disagreement” that Jones tried to exploit as a “salacious RICO conspiracy.”
“Running to nearly 100 pages, it includes countless tall tales, shameless celebrity namedrops, and irrelevant images,” the motion reads. “Yet despite all its hyperbole and lurid theatrics, [Jones] fails to state a single viable claim against any of Combs Defendants.”
In regards to the sex trafficking allegations, Diddy’s team pushed back on Jones’ assertion he was a victim of “any commercial sex act.”
“The complaint also fails to state a [Trafficking Victims Protection Act] claim directly or indirectly against Combs Global because there are no allegations that Combs Global participated in or benefitted from any alleged commercial sex act involving Jones,” the motion reads.
In his original lawsuit filed back in February, Rodney Jones claimed that Diddy sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him while he worked with the embattled mogul on The Love Album: Off the Grid. Puff’s latest motion called Jones’ allegations vague, and said Jones couldn’t recall specific instances of any sexual harassment.
“Mr. Jones’s lawsuit is pure fiction,” Diddy’s lawyer Erica Wolff said in a statement shared with XXL. “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.”
Jones is requesting a jury trial and is seeking unspecified damages. When reached for comment, Jones’ lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, told XXL, “This is nothing more than a billing exercise by Sean Combs’ latest set of lawyers. It is a weak attempt to fill their pockets before he is indicted, and they decide to haul a*s, just like his five previous lawyers did.”
Blackburn added that the salacious nature of the lawsuit is simply because the facts are that disturbing.
“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,” Blackburn added. “Notice that there is no affidavit from Sean Combs and no defense from Justin Combs. Rodney Jones filed an affidavit under penalty of perjury to the truth of the matter asserted in the filing. Can Sean Combs do the same?”
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Rodney Jones Accuses Diddy of Abuse and Unpaid Work
Jones’ filed the lawsuit back in February and accused the mogul of widespread abuse during the producer time’s time living at Puff’s house from September of 2022 to November of 2023.
“Throughout his time with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones witnessed, experienced, and endured many things that went far beyond his role as a Producer on the Love album,” the court filing read. “Mr. Combs required Mr. Jones to record him constantly. On several occasions, Mr. Combs took Mr. Jones cellphone and began recording himself. As a result, Mr. Jones has secured HUNDREDS of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff, and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity.”
Nicki Minaj is also mentioned in the lawsuit as being the girlfriend of a “Philadelphia rapper” that Diddy told Jones he had sex with. Jones additionally claimed he saw the same rapper “consorting with underage girls” on Diddy’s yacht alongside Puff.
This is just one of many legal battles that have befallen Diddy over the last several months for his alleged violent and illegal acts in the past.
