Sean “Diddy” Combs wants a judge to put “guardrails” on Clayton Howard. In an October 19 court brief, Diddy and two companies asked Judge Anne Hwang to block the former male escort from filing any more emergency applications, or at least have the court screen them before the defense is forced to respond.
The complaint from Diddy’s side comes down to time and money. His lawyers say Howard’s repeated urgent requests have driven up legal bills ahead of a key dismissal hearing.
“Guardrails must be established and followed here. Plaintiff should be barred from filing another ex parte application or, at the very least, any more should first be screened by the Court before Plaintiff is poised to waste Defendants’ time and money,” the attorneys wrote.
Howard sued Diddy and Cassie over paid sexual encounters that he alleged involved force, fraud and abuse. Both have challenged his claims, and the case has already moved through five amended complaints.
The latest clash started when Howard tried to change his lawsuit yet again. He asked to replace one draft of his proposed sixth amended complaint with a new 73-page version before the dismissal hearing.
His fifth amended complaint is still the one formally before the court. Howard wanted Judge Hwang to read his newest draft before deciding if he can revise his claims and keep the case alive.
Diddy’s legal team argued there was no emergency here at all. They said Howard could pursue changes through the normal process, which gives both sides time to weigh in.
Howard, who is representing himself, sees it very differently. He argued his revisions actually shrink the fight, said the defense could address them at the hearing, and offered to let Diddy’s lawyers file a short response.
“The Application changes no deadline and adds no briefing. The revision narrows what Defendants must defend: one cause of action is withdrawn entirely, and another is limited to a single Defendant,” Howard wrote in his October 15 memorandum.
He said he went back through the defense replies, the record from Diddy’s criminal trial, and his own memory before asking for the changes. In his view, sticking to the usual timeline could leave the judge ruling on claims he has since corrected.
Some of those corrections are striking. As AllHipHop previously reported, Howard moved to drop his claims that he was confined for roughly 12 hours during a December 2016 encounter in Miami and that Diddy’s security team took his belongings, saying he now believes those statements were inaccurate.
Cassie is pushing back too. In a separate October 19 brief, her lawyers said Howard introduced new legal theories she hasn’t had a fair chance to answer, and that he never explained why any of this was urgent.
Her team asked Judge Hwang to deny the request and attached an unsigned proposed order for the judge to consider, which is not a ruling.
The dismissal hearing was listed for October 21, where Hwang will have to sort out which version of Howard’s story she is actually being asked to rule on.
