Diddy Poised for Default Win in Lawsuit Over Courtney Burgess' Sex Tape Claims

Sean 'Diddy' Combs has moved to secure a default win in his defamation case against Courtney Burgess, with lawyers filing papers on Wednesday, 22 April, asking the court to rule in his favour after Burgess failed to respond to the lawsuit over alleged sex tapes. The filing means Combs could yet notch a procedural victory, though nothing has been confirmed by the court and the request still needs to be granted. Burgess had become a fixture in the media noise around Combs after claiming he had access to explicit recordings that would tie the music mogul to sexual encounters involving well known figures. Burgess' version of events was dramatic from the start. During a November 2024 appearance on NewsNation, he alleged that the supposed recordings showed Combs with 'eight celebrities,' six male and two female, and said two of those people were minors at the time of the encounters. Burgess also said a friend had given him flash drives that once belonged to Kim Porter, Combs' late ex-wife. When approached for comment, Burgess did not retreat. He was 'standing by his word' and added that Combs 'had a lot of nerve to want to sue somebody when he's going to rot in jail for all of the things he's done.' Any suggestion that this filing changes Combs' wider legal picture would be overstated. He was sentenced in October 2025 after being found guilty last summer on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, and that he is serving a 50-month term at a low security federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey. His lawyers are also still trying to unpick the conviction itself. At an appeal hearing on 9 April, the report says, they argued that the 'freak offs' at the centre of the government's case were immaterial under the Mann Act, the federal law that criminalises transporting someone across state lines for prostitution, 'debauchery' or 'any other immoral purpose.' So even if Combs does get the default judgment he wants against Burgess, the larger battle remains exactly where it has been for months, in the courts and under an unforgiving glare.

(Source：International Business Times)