Lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs say they are withdrawing from his $100 million defamation lawsuit, citing “unpaid legal fees and a breakdown in communication” with the rapper.
Michael Tremonte, a partner at Sher Tremonte LLP, filed the request on September 14 at the Southern District of New York, alleging that Combs had not paid a substantial balance of the firm’s fees, costs and expenses.
Sher Tremonte LLP is representing Combs in his civil cases, including the $100 million defamation lawsuit he filed against Courtney Burgess, attorney Ariel Mitchell and Nexstar Media Inc., the parent company of NewsNation.
Combs initially filed the lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages in January 2025 before later increasing the amount to $100 million. The rapper accused the defendants of making false claims about him during a NewsNation broadcast.
Tremonte claimed that Combs had been behind on payments for more than six months, while his lawyers had also struggled to communicate with him about the case.
The attorney said there had been a “total breakdown in cooperation and communication” between Combs and the firm.
He also alleged that Combs had declined to make himself available for “timely, substantive, and direct communications” about his cases for more than four months.
He said the situation had made the firm’s representation “unreasonably difficult” and prevented the lawyers from continuing to provide effective legal services.
However, Combs has disputed the lawyers’ account of why they are leaving the case.
Through Juda Engelmayer, his spokesperson, Combs said he was the one who decided to change lawyers and accused the firm of charging him for expenses he had not approved.
“I made the decision to switch lawyers because I won’t let anyone take advantage of me by overcharging me and running up bills that were never approved,” he said.
“This is strictly a business matter, and any talk about unpaid fees is just part of our dispute over those unapproved charges.”
Tremonte rejected the allegation, saying the firm had represented Combs “zealously and very efficiently under challenging circumstances”.
“As stated in our court filings, we are withdrawing from representing him because he has not paid his long-overdue invoices and has become uncooperative. Any suggestion that we overcharged him is simply false,” he said.
Combs was arrested in September 2024 after more than 120 accusers, including a minor, came forward with allegations of kidnapping, blackmail, abuse and prostitution-related crimes.
In October, Diddy was sentenced to more than four years in prison by Arun Subramanian at the New York courthouse after being convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution.
Combs’ projected release date was revised in November 2025, pushed back from May 8, 2028, to June 4, 2028, following multiple reported rule violations while incarcerated.
