NEW YORK — The lawyers who filed Sean “Diddy” Combs’ $100 million defamation suit told a federal judge Thursday that they still cannot reach him, do not know whether he has hired anyone to replace them and cannot say whether he will respond to their request to quit.
“We made another attempt to make a phone call and still haven’t been able to talk to our client,” Erica Wolff of Sher Tremonte LLP told U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan during a 2 p.m. telephone conference held today. The firm has not spoken with Combs since it moved to withdraw Monday, she said.
Cronan noted he had seen press reports that new counsel was on the way and asked whether Wolff knew anything about it.
“Unfortunately I do not know the answer to that,” she said. “The media says a lot of things. I simply don’t know.”
By the end of the call, the judge had frozen the case. He stayed discovery, put off the defendants’ deadlines to answer the complaint and ordered Wolff to keep trying to reach Combs at the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and report back in writing by Oct. 19 on whether he will bring in new lawyers or represent himself.
Two Versions of the Breakup – Who Wants to Defend the Indefensible?
The press reports Cronan referred to began Wednesday, when Combs spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told NBC News that switching lawyers was Combs’ decision, that the firm had run up charges he never approved and that the dispute was “strictly a business matter.” Engelmayer was previously a spokesperson for convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Michael Tremonte responded that the firm is leaving because Combs stopped paying and stopped cooperating, and called the overbilling claim false.
In court, there was no sign of a successor. No new attorney has entered an appearance, and the docket shows nothing filed on Combs’ behalf since Sher Tremonte’s sworn declaration that he has paid nothing in six months and has avoided direct communication for four.
Cronan declined to rule on the withdrawal. Combs still has time to respond, 14 days by Wolff’s count, and the judge said acting sooner would not be appropriate. “I do want to avoid a situation that the plaintiff here is without counsel,” he said.
Jurisdiction in Question: Where did Sean Combs Live?
The hearing also surfaced a problem that could end the federal case outright. Steven Metcalf, who represents attorney Ariel Mitchell, has sent the court a letter questioning Combs’ domicile when the suit was filed, and Mitchell is preparing a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The case is in federal court only because the parties are supposed to be citizens of different states. Mitchell lives in Miami. Combs’ complaint says he “presently resides in Brooklyn, New York.” In January 2025 that meant the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was awaiting trial. Courts generally presume a prisoner keeps the domicile he had before he was locked up, and Combs owned a mansion on Miami’s Star Island. If he was a Floridian when he sued a Floridian, the court has no jurisdiction.
Wolff offered what she called a preliminary response: Combs had come to New York before the filing with the purpose of staying, and the Miami home has since been sold. She asked that Combs get a chance to answer in substance if the court takes up the issue. Cronan extended the time to respond.
Nexstar’s lawyer, Elizabeth McNamara, said she had not studied the letter closely but already had a request. If Mitchell’s presence defeats jurisdiction, the claims against her should be severed and pursued “in a different venue,” she said. Anything else would prejudice Nexstar, which has spent 20 months and a motion to dismiss getting the case against it cut to a single statement about drug-laced baby oil.
From “Pitiful Spectacle” to Radio Silence
Neither defendant opposed the withdrawal. McNamara asked for a stay of 30 or 60 days so Combs could hire counsel or appear pro se, and told the judge that his failure to communicate with his own lawyers had already stymied discovery. That, she added, was before the court threw out every challenged statement against Nexstar but one.
It is a long way from January 2025, when the same firm opened the case by accusing the defendants of a “willful scheme to fabricate and broadcast outrageous lies” and described the coverage of Combs as a “pitiful spectacle” in which “a global audience feasts at the all-you-can-eat buffet of wild lies.” The suit demanded no less than $100 million and drew headlines worldwide. Since then Combs has been convicted on two counts, one defendant has defaulted, most of the case against the only deep-pocketed defendant is gone, and the plaintiff will not take his lawyers’ calls.
The drama has many people questioning, why Sher Tremonte and its attorneys, ever filed Sean Combs’ frivolous lawsuit to begin with.
Critics have called Combs’ $100 million lawsuit, a fake and a fraud. They point to the hundreds of victims that have come forward, alleging Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them, with baby oil and laced drinks being mentioned. One of the defendants, Ariel Mitchell, was also an attorney for several plaintiffs suing Sean Combs for sexual assault and other causes of action. Critics state this lawsuit was a way for Combs to sabotage Mitchell’s lawsuits, and to injure her.
As we previously covered, Mitchell was hit driving in Miami by a bodyguard, about a week prior to the $100 million lawsuit being filed against her. The car accident resulted in Mitchell being arrested, with the charges later being dismissed.
Separately, Mitchell stated that Combs had threatened to have her killed, a threat which was communicated by a Miami Commissioner. Combs’ strategies have been called domestic terrorism by some of his victims. Burgess has claimed that a 1999 shooting, in which he says he was hit nine times, was a hit ordered by Combs.
Wolff told the judge his approach “makes great sense.” Metcalf did not hear her say it. His line had dropped, he reported after reconnecting: “My line went completely blank.”
The status letter is due Oct. 19.
UPDATED 3:30 PM EST:
Ariel Mitchell’s attorney, Steven Metcalf Esq., filed a new motion, posted below:
Sources: Sept. 17, 2026, telephone conference before Judge John P. Cronan in Combs v. Burgess, No. 1:25-cv-00650 (S.D.N.Y.); docket entries 1, 122, 124, 125 and 126 via CourtListener; NBC News.
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This is an opinion article.