Attorneys representing rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs say they are no longer acting for the disgraced star in a dispute over months of unpaid legal bills.
The musician, who is serving a ۵۰-month federal prison term for prostitution-related offenses, has become increasingly belligerent in recent months, causing “a total breakdown in cooperation and communication” with New York law firm Sher Tremonte, one of its partners, Michael Tremonte, said in a court filing.
The firm was representing Combs, ۵۶, in a $۱۰۰m civil defamation lawsuit stemming from his conviction last year in a sex-trafficking and racketeering case that also saw him acquitted of the most serious charges.
Combs, Tremonte said in the filing seeking to withdraw as counsel as reported by NBC News, “has not paid a substantial balance of attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses” stretching more than six months.
“The firm’s representation has been rendered unreasonably difficult by Mr Combs’s lack of cooperation, resulting in a breakdown in attorney-client communications and rendering Sher Tremonte incapable of continuing to provide effective legal services to Mr Combs,” the filing, in US district court in the southern district of New York, said.
For four of the months, it said, Combs has “declined to make himself available for timely, substantive and direct communications about his cases”.
In a statement provided by his representatives to the news outlet, Combs accused his lawyers of overcharging, and said that he fired them.
“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.”
In an email to NBC, Tremonte rejected Combs’s claims and insisted his company had represented its client “zealously and very efficiently”.
“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,” Tremonte said.
“Any suggestion that we overcharged him is simply false.”
Earlier this year, prosecutors in Los Angeles said they were mulling filing new sexual assault charges against Combs, who is currently incarcerated at New Jersey’s Fort Dix federal correctional institution.
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Record producer Jonathan Hay has publicly accused Combs of “assault, sexual harassment, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress” during a ۲۰۲۰ collaboration relating to the estate of the late songwriter Christopher Wallace, better known as the rapper Notorious BIG.
Hay sued Combs and the Wallace estate for defamation in Los Angeles county superior court last year, and Wallace’s son, CJ Wallace, countersued Hay in an action in Florida.
In separate proceedings that gave rise to the payment dispute with Sher Tremonte, Combs is suing Courtney Burgess, a music manager who told a grand jury in ۲۰۲۴ that the hip-hop mogul gave him flash drives containing video of Combs sexually assaulting minors and fellow celebrities.
Earlier this month, TMZ reported, a judge allowed Combs’s case to proceed against Burgess, his lawyer Ariel Mitchell, and the media company Nexstar, which featured Mitchell on its NewsNation show vouching for Burgess’s assertions about the videos.
Combs has accused the pair of spreading “outlandish claims” and “wild lies” against him.
