On the eve of Netflix releasing a extremely anticipated docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs — produced by his longtime foe Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — the embattled mogul’s lawyers have despatched a cease-and-desist letter to the streaming large, demanding it not launch “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.”
In a press release offered to NCS, a spokesperson for Combs additionally accused Netflix of utilizing “stolen footage that was never authorized for release” in what they referred to as a “shameful hit piece.”
The footage that Combs’ consultant is referring to is proven in Netflix’s official trailer for the challenge, which was launched on Monday morning.
“We need to find someone who will work with us who has worked in the dirtiest of dirty businesses,” Combs says within the one-minute trailer. “We are losing.”
Combs spokesperson Juda Engelmayer advised NCS that Combs has been repeatedly filming himself for many years in an effort to chronicle his life for an eventual documentary. Engelmayer defined that the footage seen in Netflix’s trailer, which was filmed six days earlier than Combs’ September 2024 arrest, was a part of that documentary effort.
“Sean was making his own documentary since he was 19 years old. This footage was commissioned as part of it,” Engelmayer advised NCS on Monday by way of e mail.
Engelmayer advised NCS that neither Combs, who’s serving a four-year sentence after a jury delivered a blended verdict in his federal trial, nor his group has seen the Netflix docuseries prematurely.
“We will see it tonight. Neither Netflix, nor Mr. Jackson were kind enough to offer us a screener,” Engelmayer mentioned.
In response to NCS’s request for remark, a spokesperson for Netflix referred NCS to a press release from the docuseries’ director, Alexandra Stapleton, who mentioned the filmmaking group obtained the footage legally.
“It came to us, We obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” Stapleton mentioned. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs’ legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.”
In their cease-and-desist letter, attorneys for Combs threaten to take additional authorized motion, writing on Monday, “As you are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Combs has not hesitated to take legal action against media entities and others who violate his rights, and he will not hesitate to do so against Netflix.”
Combs beforehand filed a $100 million defamation go well with in opposition to NBCUniversal for a documentary on Combs that it aired on Peacock, “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.”
In Combs’ assertion concerning the general documentary, his group mentioned Netflix and its CEO, Ted Sarandos, have been conscious that Combs “has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way” and say “it is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work.”
The assertion added that it was “equally staggering” that the corporate labored with Jackson for the documentary as he’s “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs.”
NCS has reached out to a consultant for Jackson for remark.
Jackson, in the meantime, continues to poke enjoyable and take goal at Combs on social media, posting often on Monday about Combs on his Instagram.
Combs was sentenced to 50 months (roughly 4 years) this summer time by a decide after a two-month trial ended with him being convicted on two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution. Combs was acquitted by a jury of the extra severe fees of intercourse trafficking and racketeering, for which he was dealing with a long time and presumably life in jail if convicted.
He had been held on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest. In late October, Combs was transferred to Fort Dix, a low-security federal jail in New Jersey.
Combs is interesting his conviction and sentence.
His protection beforehand advised NCS that that they had approached President Donald Trump’s administration a couple of potential pardon.
Combs can be dealing with roughly 70 civil lawsuits the place a lot of the dozens of accusers — a few of whom have been minors on the time of the alleged incidents — claim they have been drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs.
Combs has denied all the civil claims. Some of the lawsuits have been dismissed.