Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is weighing a lawsuit against Netflix over a four-part docuseries that uses behind-the-scenes video shot days before his 2024 arrest, turning a fight over alleged “stolen footage” into a new front in the mogul’s widening court battles.
Combs’ attorney Michael Tremonte warned Netflix in a Dec. 1 cease-and-desist letter that releasing Sean Combs: The Reckoning could trigger claims for copyright infringement and possession of stolen property, according to accounts of the letter. Tremonte argued that Netflix held talks with Combs in 2023 about making a documentary, then routed material to Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, an executive producer on the series.
Netflix refused to pull the series, which premiered Dec. 2. A company spokesperson said the pre-arrest footage was “legally obtained,” calling the project “not a hit piece or an act of retribution,” and adding that Jackson has no creative control. Director Alexandria Stapleton echoed that position, saying the filmmakers have “the necessary rights” and that her team sought comment from Combs’ side during production.
Combs’ spokesperson Juda Engelmayer has called the show a “shameful hit piece” built on video “never authorized for release,” arguing Combs shot the material to tell his own story.
The dispute has also pulled in Michael “Obes” Oberlies, a videographer linked to Combs’ personal documentary efforts. Oberlies said the contested material was released by a third-party freelancer who covered for him while he was out of state, and said no rights were transferred to Netflix.
The clash lands while Combs, 56, serves a 50-month federal sentence after a jury convicted him of two counts of transporting people across state lines for prostitution-related crimes and acquitted him of sex trafficking and racketeering. His lawyers recently asked a federal appeals court to order his immediate release or reduce the sentence.
