LOS ANGELES (AP) — On Wednesday, attorneys representing Sean “Diddy” Combs initiated a defamation lawsuit against Courtney Burgess, a man they allege has falsely claimed to possess incriminating videos linking the music mogul to sexual assaults involving eight celebrities.

The lawsuit, submitted to federal court in New York City, accuses Burgess and his attorney, Ariel Mitchell, of fabricating “outrageous lies” in a bid to capitalize on the media attention surrounding Combs, who was indicted on charges of sex trafficking in September.

Additionally, Combs has filed a lawsuit against Nexstar Media, asserting that its news network, NewsNation, aired Burgess’s allegations without due diligence to verify their authenticity. The lawsuit argues that the purported videos simply do not exist.

“These defendants have intentionally fabricated and disseminated egregious falsehoods with blatant disregard for the truth,” stated Erica Wolff, Combs’s attorney. “These untruths have tainted public perception and polluted the jury pool, and this lawsuit should serve as a warning that such deliberate fabrications, which jeopardize Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial, will not be tolerated."

Burgess and Mitchell did not respond initially to inquiries from The Associated Press. A call placed to Mitchell went unanswered, and a spokesperson for Nexstar Media Group declined to comment.

At 55, Combs has pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges following his September arrest, and he remains incarcerated, as judges have denied his bail requests pending a trial scheduled for May 5.

Subsequent to Combs’s arrest, Burgess began engaging in interviews across various media outlets, claiming that he was gifted flash drives containing incriminating evidence by the late Kim Porter, a former partner of Combs and the mother of four of his children.

Yet, despite Burgess’s assertions, those videos have never surfaced publicly. Several acquaintances of Porter informed The New York Times that they did not recognize Burgess and questioned the veracity of his claims. Burgess himself has admitted to lacking personal acquaintance with Combs.

Federal prosecutors have not connected Burgess to the ongoing criminal case publicly. In multiple interviews, Burgess claimed that law enforcement had seized the videos from his residence, with Mitchell later stating that Burgess had delivered the drives to federal authorities. The lawsuit refutes both assertions as “completely false,” emphasizing, “No such video was ever turned over to the government because no such video exists.”