Universal Music Group (UMG) and CEO Lucian Grainge have been dismissed from a lawsuit alleging they “aided and abetted” Sean “Diddy” Combs in his alleged sexual abuse — a move that came after the attorney who filed the case admitted there was “no legal basis to the allegations.”
The sudden reversal came two months after lawyers for the music giant claimed the allegations were so “outrageously false” they planned to take the unusual step of seeking legal action directly against the accuser's lawyer. Tyrone Blackburnfor his decision to name them in the lawsuit.
In an affidavit filed in court on Monday (May 13), Blackburn said that after reading UMG's objections, he “concluded that there is no legal basis for the claims and allegations made against the UMG defendants.” He asked that they be fired immediately and “with prejudice” — meaning he can't reinstate them later.
In his own court on Tuesday, UMG's lead lawyer, Donald Zachary, agreed that the charges against his clients should be dropped. But he once again slammed Blackburn for bringing these allegations to the fore.
“As we have said repeatedly since our first communication with the plaintiff's attorney on March 4, 2024, there was no basis, not in law and not in fact, for the allegations and charges being brought,” Zakarin wrote. “The UMG defendants should never have been named in any of these complaints, and we should never have been asked to file motions to dismiss the complaints in this lawsuit.”
When reached for comment from Advertising sign, Blackburn declined to answer specific questions about what led him to drop the case: “I would strongly advise you not to contact me for any comment about any case I have. I don't respect you as a journalist. You are a piece of mouth for [Combs’ attorney] Shawn Holley, and UMG. You should reach out to them for feedback.”
Filed in late February, the lawsuit against Diddy alleges that he sexually assaulted and harassed a producer named Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones while working as a producer on the rapper's 2023. The album of love. The lawsuit is one of several abuse cases filed against Combs in the past six months, in addition to an apparent federal criminal investigation. Combs has vehemently denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
But the case Jones filed went far beyond a simple sexual assault claim against Diddy. Naming Grainge, UMG and several others as defendants, the suit alleged that they operated a sweeping conspiracy that violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — the federal RICO statute most often used in criminal cases against mobsters and drug cartels. It also charged the various defendants with violating federal sex-trafficking laws.
In a scathing response to these allegations in March, lawyers for UMG and Grainge said these allegations were “entirely invented by Mr Blackburn”.
“THE [complaint] leveling charges of criminal extortion and criminal sex trafficking against the UMG defendants, respected individuals and companies that have absolutely nothing to do with the plaintiff's allegations,” Zakarin wrote at the time. “These allegations are recklessly false and, but for their inclusion in a complaint, would be defamatory.”
In addition to trying to dismiss the claims, UMG's lawyers took aim at Blackburn directly. They accused him of making “knowingly false allegations” and said they would ask the judge to punish him for it.
“The license to practice law is a privilege,” Zakarin wrote at the time. “Mr. Blackburn, the plaintiff's attorney, abused this leave to incriminate himself by unfairly, falsely and recklessly accusing the UMG defendants of criminal conduct.”
