A US federal judge has allowed Sean “Diddy” Combs to proceed with his $100m defamation lawsuit against lawyer Ariel Mitchell over televised claims that he used drug-laced baby oil and possessed recordings of sexual assaults, rejecting her bid to dismiss the case, per allhiphop.com.
US District Judge John Cronan denied Mitchell’s motion to dismiss in its entirety, ruling she must continue to defend claims tied to appearances on NewsNation.
The court delivered a mixed result for Nexstar Media Inc, NewsNation’s parent company, dismissing several claims linked to alleged videos, hidden recordings and a police report, but allowing the baby oil claim to proceed.
The complaint centres on statements by Mitchell and her former client Courtney Burgess. Combs alleges Burgess falsely claimed to possess 11 flash drives showing Combs sexually assaulting celebrities and minors, and that Mitchell vouched for that account on television. The suit also targets Mitchell’s statements about a supposed California police report, alleged secret recordings, drug-laced baby oil, and claims that Combs victimised “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people.
Combs, who initially filed the action seeking $50m before amending the claim to at least $100m, argues the statements damaged his reputation, livelihood and prospects for a fair criminal trial. Mitchell argued her media appearances repeated information supplied by Burgess, amounted to protected opinion, or were privileged as discussion of anticipated litigation.
Cronan rejected those arguments. He wrote that “whether a particular police report corroborates an allegation of rape and whether a particular sex tape exists are clearly questions of fact that are capable of being proven false.”
The judge also ruled that attributing defamatory statements to another person does not confer immunity, citing the “black-letter rule that one who republishes a libel [or slander may be] subject to liability… even though he attributes the statement to the original publisher.”[defamatory]
He said Mitchell’s accusations that Combs sexually assaulted celebrities and minors, secretly recorded sexual partners, used those recordings to extort people, drugged a woman with drug-laced baby oil and victimised “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people “are not inactionable opinion or hyperbole because they carry precise meanings that are readily understood.”
On actual malice, Cronan wrote: “This argument fails because Combs alleges that Mitchell repeatedly professed personal knowledge of evidence that did not exist and that she had no basis to believe existed.”
Burgess has not appeared in the case. The court noted he was served by methods including email, text messages and newspaper advertisements and missed a February 2, 2026 response deadline. A certificate of default was entered against him on April 30, but the current opinion does not address Combs’ claim against him and no damages have been awarded.
The ruling comes as Combs serves a 50-month sentence at FCI Fort Dix after a jury convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act. The jury acquitted him of racketeering and sex trafficking. His projected release date is listed as February 5, 2028.
The court has scheduled a conference for September 17, 2026 to discuss discovery, mediation and next steps.