Diddy Sues to Silence Grand Jury Witness Claiming to Have Seen Shocking Tapes

Sean “Diddy” Combs has sued a grand jury witness who claims to have seen video of the disgraced rap mogul allegedly sexually assaulting eight celebrities, including two who looked underage.

The $50 million defamation suit filed against music producer Courtney Burgess claims Burgess invented the videos, which he and his lawyer Ariel Mitchell-Kidd have discussed in several interviews. One of those aired on NewsNation, which was also named in the suit.

The “Bad Boy for Life” artist was arrested in September on suspicion of sex trafficking and racketeering for allegedly forcing women to participate in days-long sex parties he dubbed “freak-offs.” Combs and his lawyers have denied the charges.

More than 150 alleged victims—many of them men and boys—have since accused Combs of sexual assault, creating a media frenzy. Combs now faces more than 30 civil suits, according to the New York Times.

“Millions of people have come to believe the made-up ‘evidence’ that Defendants have falsely described and vouched for,” the defamation suit alleges.

“I’m standing by my word,” Burgess told the Times Wednesday. “He had a lot of nerve to want to sue somebody when he’s going to rot in jail for all of the things he’s done.

In a statement to the Times, Mitchell-Kidd called the suit a “pathetic ploy to silence victims and people who stand up for victims” and said she looked forward to counter suing.

Burgess had been called in late October to testify before a New York grand jury considering additional charges in Combs’ case after prosecutors saw him on a true-crime podcast claiming he’d been given USB drives with eight tapes showing Combs sexually assaulting four men, two underage boys and two women.

Afterward testifying, he told TMZ reporters outside the court house that he didn’t personally know Combs, but that thanks to his 35 years in the music business, their social and professional networks overlapped.

Later, while speaking to NewsNation host Ashleigh Banfield, he explained that he’d received the videos from an associate of the late Kim Porter, Combs’ former partner and mother of three of his children.

Based on the locations and camera angles, it was clear the celebrities didn’t know they were being filmed, he alleged, and all of them appeared drunk or under the influence of drugs.

“How many appear to be potentially victimized?” Banfield asked.

“I think all, to be honest, all were victims,” Burgess said, adding that the celebrities didn’t seem to know what was happening to them.

Burgess has previously said that the flash drives with the recordings had been seized by federal law enforcement officers.

In his defamation suit, Combs alleges that Burgess was lying about the tapes in order to “gain social media fame” and “enrich himself.”

The media circus surrounding the case had led Combs to seek a gag order in October barring prospective witnesses and their attorneys from making statements about the case, which they argued jeopardized Combs’ right to a fair trial.

The judge rejected that request in early November, saying it was too broad.

“Not all alleged victims will be participants in this case, and a blanket restriction on their speech will silence individuals who may never have anything to do with the proceedings here,” the judge wrote.

When that failed, Combs’ lawyers apparently turned to the defamation suit.

Combs’ criminal trial is set to begin May 5, 2025. Until then, he’s being held in the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after the judge in the case ruled he was a flight risk and liable to threaten potential witnesses with violence.