Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys have retaliated against a woman’s lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault by submitting a move to dismiss some allegations that were not legal at the time of the alleged event.
According to a motion submitted on Friday to a New York court, Combs cannot be sued as, at the time of Joi Dickerson-Deal’s 1991 accusations against him, certain statutes were not in place.
The music mogul’s lawyers are asking that many statutes—including those relating to revenge porn and human trafficking—be excluded from Dickerson-Deal’s charges due to their potential to cause bias.
She said that when she was a 19-year-old college student, Combs “intentionally drugged” her, took her home, and sexually raped her following a date in Harlem.
The lawsuit claims that Combs recorded the attack without her knowledge and disseminated it with a number of his colleagues in the music business. He refuted the claims, charging instead that she was attempting to take advantage of the New York laws that temporarily extended the statute of limitations.
According to Combs’ attorneys, Dickerson-Deal’s allegation was made almost thirty years after his alleged misbehavior, and the New York State Revenge Porn Law was not defined until 2019.
His lawyers also mentioned a few others, such as the 2007-enacted New York Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Law.
Federal agents conducting a sex trafficking probe seized Combs’ residences in Miami and Los Angeles last month.
Combs was sued by his former protege and girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, in November. The complaint was resolved the day after it was filed, with Combs claiming years of sexual abuse, including rape. He allegedly had her have sex with male prostitutes while filming them, according to the lawsuit.
