Photo Credit: HBO / Max
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers have subpoenaed Warner Bros. seeking raw, unedited footage from the HBO docuseries, ‘The Fall of Diddy.’
His lawyers sent the subpoena back in March to Warner Bros. asking for “all recordings, including raw and unedited footage” from the interviews with two accusers who appeared in the series. The docuseries aired on HBO/Max in January. The subpoena also contains a demand for any notes or journals the accusers gave the documentary’s producers and records of financial payments made to the accusers in connection to their involvement with the project.
Warner Bros. is fighting the subpoena in court as Diddy’s trial looms in May. Lawyers for the studio asked a federal judge overseeing the sex-trafficking case to squash the subpoena in court today. A nine-page filing cites “reporter’s privilege” and calls Combs’ efforts an overly broad “fishing expedition.”
“Mr. Combs seeks outtakes from interviews with two persons featured in the docuseries,” Warner Bros. lawyer Thomas B. Sullivan writes to US District Judge Arun Subramanian. “The interview outtakes it seeks are protected by the reporter’s privilege that applies to unpublished newsgathering materials,” the lawyer continues. Mr. Combs has not met, and cannot meet, his burden to overcome that privilege.”
The Warner Bros. filing does not directly name the two accusers whose notes and outtakes Diddy’s lawyers want to see. Instead, the filing describes them as Individual A and Individual B.
“Individual A is Mr. Combs’ former personal chef,” the document reveals. “She is featured in the docuseries speaking about how Mr. Combs treated her when she was employed by him, as well as various rumors she heard about his behavior during her time in his orbit.”
Meanwhile, Individual B is called a “former romantic partner of Mr. Combs.” The lawyer’s petition says she was featured in the docuseries discussing the origins and path of her relationship with him, including one alleged incident of sexual assault.” Warner Bros. lawyers argue that Combs’ “fishing expedition” is an attempt to find something to use against those two accusers should they testify against him at trial.
