Diddy is asking a federal judge to sanction a woman who sued him and his son King Combs in 2024 over an alleged assault that took place on a yacht, arguing the lawsuit is so frivolous that she and her lawyers should be forced to cover his legal fees.
According to court documents obtained by XXL on Tuesday (July 21), the embattled mogul claims Grace O’Marcaigh and her legal team filed a baseless amended complaint after a judge had already ruled that California courts lack personal jurisdiction over him.
His attorneys argue the amended filing was redundant and essentially just repackaged the same jurisdictional arguments the court previously rejected, instead of actually addressing the issues identified by the judge.
As a result, Diddy says he was forced to spend additional money defending what his legal team describes as a meritless case. He’s now asking the judge to impose sanctions against O’Marcaigh and her attorneys, including requiring them to pay his attorneys’ fees and court costs.
But O’Marcaigh’s attorneys are disputing Diddy’s argument, and in their response letters, they say the amended complaint includes new allegations they believe establish sufficient ties between Diddy and California through the yacht charter at the center of the lawsuit. They also note the court granted them permission to amend the complaint and maintain Diddy’s request for sanctions is itself without merit.
Grace O’Marcaigh originally filed suit against both Diddy and his youngest son Christian ‘King’ Combs in 2024, alleging the latter sexually assaulted her while she was working as a steward on a yacht they’d chartered, and thus Diddy aided and abetted him because he’d chartered the yacht.
Both Diddy and King deny any wrongdoing, with their attorney Aaron Dyer telling XXL in 2024, “This is just another lewd and meritless claim from Tyrone Blackburn — just like what he filed in the Rodney Jones lawsuit, which he still has not served. This complaint is filled with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we’ve come to expect from Blackburn. This is exactly why the federal judge in New York slapped him two days ago for a ‘pattern of behavior’ in ‘improperly [filing] cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly,’ and why he was referred to the disciplinary committee in the Southern District of New York. We will be filing a motion to dismiss this outrageous claim.”
Diddy, who is serving a 50-month sentence on prostitution-related charges, is currently battling dozens of civil cases.
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