Sean "Diddy" Combs' lawyers have sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter, arguing that a new 50 Cent–produced docuseries includes "stolen" footage used without authorization.
The move came just hours before Netflix was set to release "Sean Combs: The Reckoning," a multipart series that is executive-produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, a longtime rival of Combs.
A spokesperson for Combs told CNN the show amounts to a "shameful hit piece" and alleged Netflix is preparing to use "stolen footage that was never authorized for release."
The contested material appears in the one-minute trailer released Monday, which includes a clip of Combs recorded shortly before his September 2024 arrest.
In the segment, he says, "We need to find someone who will work with us who has worked in the dirtiest of dirty businesses. We are losing."
Combs' spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said the footage came from the decades of material Combs has been filming for his own documentary project and that the clip featured by Netflix was recorded six days before his arrest as part of that ongoing project.
"Sean was making his own documentary since he was 19 years old. This footage was commissioned as part of it," Engelmayer said.
He added that neither Combs nor his team had access to the Netflix series in advance, saying, "We will see it tonight. Neither Netflix, nor Mr. Jackson were kind enough to offer us a screener."
Netflix did not comment directly but directed CNN to a statement from director Alexandra Stapleton, who said the production team acted within the law when obtaining the footage.
"It came to us. We obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights," she said. "We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker's identity confidential.
"One thing about Sean Combs is that he's always filming himself, and it's been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs' legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back."
Combs' lawyers warned Netflix that further action could follow if the series proceeds unchanged.
"As you are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Combs has not hesitated to take legal action against media entities and others who violate his rights, and he will not hesitate to do so against Netflix," the letter stated.
Combs recently brought a $100 million defamation suit against NBCUniversal over a separate documentary distributed on Peacock.
His team also argued that Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos knew Combs had been assembling his own life's archive "since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way," calling it "fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work."
They further criticized Netflix's collaboration with Jackson, describing him as "a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs."
Combs is currently serving a 50-month federal sentence following convictions on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
He was acquitted of sex-trafficking and racketeering charges that carried potential decades-long penalties.
After his 2024 arrest, he was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn before being moved in October to a low-security federal facility at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
He is appealing his conviction and sentence, and his legal team previously said it had approached the Trump administration regarding a possible pardon.
Combs also faces about 70 civil lawsuits alleging drugging and sexual assault, including claims from individuals who say they were minors at the time. He denies all accusations, and several cases have already been dismissed.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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