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Sean “Diddy” Combs is countersuing Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones , claiming the producer stole documentary footage and sold it to Netflix for 50 Cent ’s series on the mogul’s downfall.
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Three years after Jones filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against Combs — much of which has since been dismissed — the rapper fired back Tuesday with a countersuit that accused the producer of breaking the law to leak behind-the-scenes footage to Netflix.
“These counterclaims arise from Rodney Jones shamelessly abusing his position of trust to gain unauthorized access to video footage … and to exploit such property in violation of federal and state law as part of his campaign to spread baseless lies about Mr. Combs in pursuit of an undeserved payout,” the imprisoned mogul’s lawyers write.
The footage was allegedly used in Sean Combs: The Reckoning , a six-part Netflix doc on the widespread abuse accusations that ultimately led to Diddy’s four-year prison sentence last year. The show, which racked up millions of views, was produced by 50 Cent, a longtime Combs nemesis .
Diddy threatened to sue Netflix in December to block the series’ release, but ultimately never did so. Instead, he’s now suing Lil Rod — claiming the producer “exploited Mr. Combs’s trust” to steal computer hard drives that contained footage the star had intended to use for his own documentary about his life.
As part of the alleged footage deal with Netflix, Diddy says Jones demanded to be interviewed on camera as part of the series itself — something the star’s lawyers called “a bargained-for opportunity Mr. Jones leveraged to spread outrageous lies about his former benefactor.”
Jones first sued Combs in March 2024 , alleging the rapper had assaulted him while he was working as a producer on the Love album. The case came amid a flood of such cases against Diddy, in which dozens of accusers claimed he’d sexually harassed or assaulted them. Federal prosecutors then filed a sprawling criminal case against him, resulting in a blockbuster trial last summer and convictions on prostitution charges .
Jones made sweeping allegations in his lawsuit, claiming Diddy led a vast RICO conspiracy that included Universal Music Group and its chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge . He quickly dropped those accusations after his lawyers admitted they were false , however, and a judge later dismissed many of the lawsuit’s claims. But the judge allowed other claims to move ahead, including sex trafficking and sexual assault.
In Wednesday’s filing, Diddy again denied all of those accusations — and leveled his own against Jones.
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After Jones was “welcomed into Mr. Combs’s home” as a collaborator, Diddy’s lawyers say he stole the footage during a trip to St. Barths in 2022 by “clandestinely” accessing a videographer’s workstation. They say he then sold it to Netflix by telling the company it was his own footage. The lawsuit makes no accusations of wrongdoing against the streaming giant.
In addition to the stolen footage, the lawsuit claims Jones defamed Combs in his interviews in the documentary, including his statements that the star “groomed” him, drugged him and instructed him to recruit sex workers.
“Mr. Jones eagerly peddled these lies to enrich himself, knowing that his claims were false,” Diddy’s attorneys write in Tuesday’s filing. “Mr. Jones’s false claims caused significant harm to Mr. Combs. [ Reckoning ] has been viewed across the globe, likely by millions of people.”
In technical legal terms, Diddy is accusing Jones of violations state and federal computer hacking laws, defamation, unfair competition and various other forms of legal wrongdoing.
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