By Matthew Cox
COURTNEY BURGESS TEXTED ME in a panic on the morning of October 21, 2024, stating: “Feds came to my house and tour it up and took all my electronics including my studio equipment.” Despite the horrible grammar, I could sense the panic, and imagined him standing in his home, surrounded by the destruction.
Burgess, a music producer who fancied himself a “hit-maker” with three decades of experience in the industry, spent the next several minutes describing how the FBI had confiscated the flash drives that contained the video footage of Sean “Diddy” Combs engaging in sex with celebrities, three of whom were underage. In addition, the drives contained the original manuscript for Combs’ former-girlfriend’s salacious memoir, Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, which had recently become the number one selling book on Amazon.
My name is Matthew Cox, I’m a former-con man, turned true crime author and podcaster. I spent over a decade in federal prison for a variety of bank fraud related offenses, and I am one hundred percent guilty of them all. While incarcerated, I passed my time writing my fellow inmates’ true crime stories. Several of those stories were turned into magazine articles, books, and eventually optioned for their film rights. Upon my release, I parlayed my new career into the successful true crime YouTube channel Matthew Cox |Inside True Crime.
On October 20, 2024, I released a podcast video entitled I Have the Diddy Tapes! Diddy Insider Leaks Celebrity Victims. My guest on this episode was Courtney Burgess. This was the first time Burgess publicly claimed to possess flash drives containing videos of Combs sexually abusing celebrities and minors. This was also the first time Burgess publicly stated that he was Chris Todd’s source for Kim Porter’s manuscript and diary entries which Todd then used to assemble Kim’s Lost Words.
According to Burgess, the flash drives were handed to him by a friend of Kim Porter’s, prior to her death, suggesting that she intended for the contents to be used as evidence against Combs. However, Burgess refused to hand them over to the authorities, because in the hip-hop community, that would have been considered “snitching.”
According to Burgess, within hours of the podcast being aired, the FBI obtained a search warrant and raided his home; “The feds took all my shit,” said Burgess.
The most shocking revelation is that it was all a lie.
SEAN COMBS’ RISE TO FAME was unlike anything seen in the music industry before. The producer, label exec and entrepreneur got his start at Uptown Records in 1990. By 1994 Combs partnered with legendry music producer Clive Davis to form Bad Boy Records. That summer Bad Boy achieved notoriety when it released Ready to Die, the debut record of The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace). Combs shepherded the artist to commercial success and international renown, becoming part of the bicoastal gangsta-rap feuds.
Over the past three decades Combs built one of hip-hop’s biggest empires. He has worked with The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Usher, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, Mase and others.
By 2022, Combs had risen to the level of an icon, becoming a household name. His estimated fortune reached $1 billion. Renowned for his VIP guest lists, Combs was known to host lavish parties which continued until the early hours of the morning.
In 2023 Combs was awarded the Key to the City by New York Mayor Eric Adams. His reputation, however, took a colossal hit a few months later.
ON NOVEMBER 17, 2023, Cassandra Ventura, Sean Combs’ former girlfriend, filed a lawsuit alleging that the music mogul sexually and physically abused her during their relationship.
Ms. Ventura, a singer and model known as Cassie, was signed to Combs’ record label in 2005 when she was 19, and the two were romantic partners for more than a decade before they split in 2018. In her 35-page complaint—Ventura said that after signing her to his label, Combs “lured [her] into an ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle, and into a romantic relationship with him—her boss, one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry, and a vicious, cruel, and controlling man nearly two decades her senior.”
The complaint alleged that Combs was “prone to uncontrollable rage” and that he “regularly” subjected Ventura to “savage” beatings. The lawsuit included graphic descriptions of violent abuse and described how on one occasion Combs assaulted Ventura at an upscale hotel in Los Angeles in 2016, and that he later paid the hotel $50,000 for the hallway security footage. Ventura claimed that she was often stashed in hotels for days to let the black eyes and bruises heal to conceal the effects of Combs’ physical abuse.
Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit also alleged that he plied her with drugs and accused Combs of sexual abuse; that Combs forced her to engage in sex acts he called Freak Offs with other men, while he masturbated and filmed them. In court papers, Ventura claimed that after a dinner in September 2018 in which she tried to end their relationship, Combs raped her in her home. Ventura claimed that she “continue[d] to suffer from immense emotional distress” due to her relationship with Combs.
In response to Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit, Combs’ lawyer blasted it as a shakedown based on “outrageous lies.” The attorney, Ben Brafman, said in a statement to The New York Times that Combs “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations[.]” Brafman told NBC News that “[f]or the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
However, Combs immediately switched gears. With staggering speed, Ventura’s lawsuit was settled the day after it was filed. The terms of the agreement were confidential, with Combs maintaining his innocence. “A decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” said Brafman. “Mr. Combs’ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims.”
THE FOLLOWING WEEK TWO more women filed lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual abuse. The lawsuits, filed by Joi Dickerson and another woman who was not named, alleged acts of sexual assault, beatings and forced drugging. One week later, a third woman, Liza Gardner, accused Combs and another man of raping her and her friend when she was 16.
On December 6, 2023, another woman sued Combs claiming she was “sex trafficked” and “gang raped” by Combs and two other men when she was 17. In her filing, the woman, known only as Jane Doe, alleged she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” that made her incapable of consenting to sex and the men took turns raping her.
The same day, Combs posted a statement on Instagram broadly denying all the allegations in the mounting series of lawsuits. “Enough is enough,” Combs wrote. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family, and for the truth.”
WADE WILLIAMSON – host of the Crime & Entertainment podcast – first spoke with someone he knew by the name of Leo who, it turned out, was Courtney Burgess’s business partner in March of 2024. “I didn’t really know anything about Courtney,” said Wade. “Leo told me that Courtney had produced some of Tupac Shakur’s music. I did a quick search online and saw that Courtney was a producer who had managed one of Tupac’s artists. I thought it’d be cool to talk to someone who actually knew Tupac, so I asked Leo to put me in contact with Courtney.”
During their conversation, Leo told Wade that Burgess was a producer with over three decades experience in the music industry and that Burgess was involved with a project centered around a memoir authored by Kim Porter that detailed shocking claims about her relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs and other celebrities.
“Just out of normal curiosity I asked Leo to get me a copy of the book.”
HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS served search warrants in early morning raids on Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25, 2024, in connection with a sex trafficking investigation. During the searches federal agents discovered multiple AR-15s, large capacity magazines, controlled substances, and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant and baby oil on his properties. The agents also seized Combs’ electronic devices, recovering several terabytes of electronic material which, according to federal officials, includes video of Combs assaulting women.
WADE WILLIAMSON RECEIVED A physical copy of Porter’s memoir—then titled Tell It All—from Leo on March 30, 2024. “When I first read Porter’s memoir, I was shocked. It described Diddy as a monster, drugging and sexually abusing adults and minors. Normally, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I got the manuscript a few days after the feds had raided Diddy’s homes. That got me thinking it could be true.”
Despite all his efforts, Courtney Burgess had been unable to garner any interest in the manuscript. “Leo asked me if I knew anybody in the entertainment business who could help Courtney get the book published because he wanted to monetize the project. I told him about an investigative journalist I knew about through podcasting circles who bragged about being well connected. His name was Chris Todd.”
Wade texted Todd in mid-April 2024 regarding the manuscript, and its shocking allegations.
CHRIS TODD IS A SELF-DESCRIBED “investigative producer, author and journalist” who has been featured on CourtTV, NewsNation, and on numerous podcasts. Todd has written books that are considered outside the mainstream, drawing inspiration from the controversial 1990’s era journalist Gary Webb. In Ron’s Revenge, for instance, Todd claimed that O.J. Simpson had an accomplice with him on the night of his infamous murders and that the accomplice was an enforcer for the mafia. According to Todd, the murder of Simpson’s ex-wife was a spontaneous event committed during a drug extortion scheme involving an East Coast mobster whom Simpson maintained a drug relationship with.
Besides the O.J. Simpson murder-related revelations—which, not surprisingly, have been widely ignored—Todd claims to have made breakthroughs investigating the Jeffrey Epstein affair and the JFK Assassination, both of which he believes have been censored by the mainstream media. Todd has claimed that he’s been blacklisted by the media, much like his hero Gary Webb, a journalist whose reputation was savagely attacked by the government and the media after Webb purportedly exposed the CIA’s support of a Nicaraguan drug trafficking network. “I can’t fully explain it, but I feel that I’m supposed to carry on his tradition, a tradition of real journalism, real investigations, even if it ruffles feathers and causes lawsuits,” said Todd.
Chris Todd appeared as a guest on Wade Williamson’s podcast on May 15, 2024, to discuss Todd’s investigation into the unsolved murder of Christopher Wallace (The Notorious B.I.G.). During their discussion Wade referenced the Porter-memoir’s salacious claim that Sean Combs had orchestrated the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur at Quad Studios in New York after Tupac had declined Combs’ invitation to have sex with Kim Porter.
CCTV FOOTAGE EMERGED SHOWING Sean Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a hotel in Los Angeles in 2016. The shocking video, broadcast by CNN on May 17, 2024, closely mirrored an assault described in Ventura’s lawsuit. In the footage, Combs is shown physically assaulting Ventura while she was on the ground.
In the face of incontrovertible evidence of abuse, Combs posted an apology video to social media on May 19:
“My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” Combs says. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I got into therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.”
This was Combs’ first real acknowledgement of wrongdoing. The response was swift as Combs faced a severe backlash over what many called an insincere apology.
Two days later, on May 21, 2024, Combs was sued by a model named Crystal McKinney. She accused him of drugging her and forcing her to perform oral sex in the bathroom of his recording studio. A few days later, Combs was sued by a woman named April Lampos, who alleged instances of sexual assault.
Combs’ lawyers replied to all the allegations with denials, with one stating: “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or sex trafficked anyone.”
COURTNEY BURGESS CONTACTED Wade Williamson after he watched Wade reference the Porter-memoir’s claim about Sean Combs and Tupac Shakur. “He reached out to me on Instagram,” recalled Wade. During their discussion, Burgess told Wade that he was deeply involved in the hip-hop scene and that he and Tupac Shakur had been close friends. Burgess even went so far as to lead Wade into believing that he had produced the track for Tupac’s legendary single “Hail Mary”, generally considered one of hip hop’s greatest masterpieces.
“Courtney said that he was in possession of Kim Porter’s manuscript,” said Wade. “And that he wanted to get it published so that he could monetize it.”
CHRIS TODD CONTACTED WADE Williamson after Combs posted his apology video. “After CNN broadcasted the video,” recalled Wade, “the memoir’s allegations about Diddy being physically abusive to Kim Porter seemed much more credible.” Todd and Wade had an in-depth conversation about the book and about Courtney Burgess, the man behind the manuscript. “Chris told me that he knew some people in media, and that he would ask around to see if there was any interest in Porter’s memoir.”
When Wade told Burgess that Todd wanted to get involved, “Courtney wanted to talk with Todd.”
On July 4, 2024, Wade created a group chat so that all three men – Chris Todd, Courtney Burgess, and Wade Williamson – could communicate together. In the group’s very first exchange, the men stated to one another:
Wade texted: Chris, I made a group chat with Courtney. Just to keep things open.
Todd texted: Sweet.
Burgess texted: Okay.
Todd texted: I have major interest with a major celeb news outlet.
Over the course of the next week Todd and Burgess established each other’s bona fides. “Todd told Burgess that he was an investigative reporter who had covered sensational cases,” recalled Wade. For his part, Burgess described himself as an entrepreneur and a music producer. “Burgess said a close friend of Kim’s gave him a flash drive with Kim Porter’s memoir on it. She’d asked him to get it published to expose Diddy’s crimes.”
According to Todd, Burgess also confided that “the woman who gave him the flash drive was Kimora Simmons—the ex-wife of music producer Russel Simmons.”
Burgess, Wade, and Todd hammered out a business agreement, agreeing to split the proceeds generated from the publication of the book and any sale of its film rights. Per their agreement, Burgess was responsible for providing Todd a copy of Porter’s memoir. Todd was responsible for getting the manuscript published; implementing a media strategy to publicize the book; and for shopping the film rights to Hollywood producers.
It was during these exchanges that Wade and Todd first learned that Burgess claimed to be in possession of flash drives belonging to Kim Porter. “One of the flash drives contained videos of Combs engaging in sexual acts with some celebrities and teenagers,” said Wade. “Two of them were Usher and Justin Bieber.”
Immediately, Todd began emailing reporters, promising bombshells related to the Diddy sex tapes.
CHRIS TODD PUBLISHED, Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, on September 6, 2024. Amazon billed it as a memoir by Kim Porter under the pen name Jamal T. Milwood. Porter was the deceased ex-girlfriend of Sean Combs, with whom she shared three children as well as a son from a prior marriage whom Combs adopted. She had an on-and-off again relationship with Sean Combs from 1994 to 2007.
The memoir detailed Porter’s relationship with Combs, recounting incidents of physical abuse; sexual coercion; sex parties involving celebrities; allegations of child sexual abuse; and allegations that Combs had been complicit in several unsolved murders.
The book begins with a prefatory note from an unidentified woman who claims that before her death Porter provided her with a manuscript that Porter had been “diligently” working on because she was in fear for her life. In a dramatic tone, the memoir begins:
“In 2017 Kim Porter sent me her novel that she was diligently working on. Kim felt there were truths she had to disclose, and didn’t want to hide any longer. She acknowledged some of the secrets in her book were going to hurt several people, but she wanted Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs taken down, and she had to tell her story to do it. I warned her Sean didn’t care if she was the mother of his children, but she was tired of living in fear of him.
I knew how it was going to go down; he was going to kill her. I just wished she would have listened, because she was a good person. Kim made me promise that if something happened to her, I would make sure this book became public to the world. The way Sean moved; I knew that was a promise I would have to fulfill.
Kim knew I was a woman of my word, and this book was going to make it into print. Her kids deserve to know the truth. I’m going to make sure her story gets told, and Kim wanted to ‘Tell It All.’”
The preface ends with the unidentified woman Kim Porter entrusted with the manuscript quoting Ms. Porter stating: “I don’t know if I will be alive to see this book in print. But there are too many secrets. I can’t remain silent anymore.”
Despite the memoir’s outrageous allegations, the book hit the market with a thud.
ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, Sean Combs was arrested by federal agents in New York after a grand jury indicted him. He was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carried a maximum sentence of life in prison; one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison; and transportation for purposes of prostitution, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The indictment described Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. It said Combs “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” including physical violence, in order “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
Combs stood accused of luring female victims and employing violence, coercion and drugs to force women to engage in frequent, multi-day “freak offs” – extravagant events involving drugs, sex, and commercial sex workers that Combs arranged, directed, and recorded.
To ensure participation in his Freak Offs, Combs was alleged to have used violence and intimidation and leveraged his power over victims—power he obtained through exploiting his financial support and threatening to cut off the same and controlling their careers. Combs also threatened his victims, including by threatening to expose embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the Freak Offs if the women did not comply with his demands.
“Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said while arguing at his September 19 arraignment. The government said Combs threatened victims with releasing videos of them engaging in coerced sex acts if they cooperated with authorities.
Combs was remanded into custody, where he awaits trial.
AFTER HE WATCHED THE U.S. ATTORNEY’S news conference Wade Williamson contacted me. We discussed filming a video covering Diddy’s arrest, his charges, and the shocking allegations made in Kim Porter’s memoir. The only thing I knew about the book came from that brief conversation, however, considering Combs’ indictment, it certainly appeared to be credible.
Prior to the podcast, Wade contacted Courtney Burgess and Chris Todd to discuss his appearance on the podcast. “Neither one of them wanted their names associated with the book,” said Wade. “But they both wanted me to do the interview, hoping it would generate some book sales.”
Wade appeared on the Inside True Crime podcast that evening. My producer edited the video that night and released it the following day (September 18). The episode, entitled “Diddy Insider Leaks Exclusive Files,” garnered nearly one million views and kicked off a firestorm on social media.
Within one week, Kim’s Last Words became the best-selling Amazon book in the country.
PORTER’S FRIEND, KIMORA SIMMONS—the individual whom Courtney Burgess stated had entrusted him with the flash drives—denounced the memoir as a complete fabrication. Porter’s ex-husband, Al B. Sure!, insisted the book was fake and was filled with “fabricated bullshit.” An attorney for Sean Combs, Erica Wolf, told People Magazine that the memoir is “a shameless attempt to profit” from Ms. Porter’s death.
Likewise, all four of Porter’s children denounced the book as a fabrication. “Claims our mom wrote a book are simply untrue. She did not. And anyone claiming to have a manuscript is misrepresenting themselves.”
A source close to the Combs family told Rolling Stone that they were exploring all their legal options regarding the book. “Kim Porter never authorized a manuscript,” the source says, “and any claims suggesting otherwise are entirely false and fabricated.”
Lawanda Lane, the caregiver of Kim Porter and Diddy’s twin daughters, added that “every page in that book is false, saying that Porter was not working on any kind of memoir before her death. “She would never,” Lane said. “She was extremely private.”
Even after Porter’s family and closest friends denounced Kim’s Lost Words and cast doubt on its authenticity, the book continued to be widely circulated on social media.
GIVEN THE CONTROVERSY SWIRLING around the authenticity of Kim’s Lost Words, and the “carnival atmosphere” surrounding Diddy’s looming criminal trial, I invited Pierre Rausini to appear on the Inside True Crime podcast to discuss the government’s case against the embattled music mogul and to share insight on what Combs’ experience in federal prison would be like if convicted. “Pete was one of the best jailhouse lawyers in the federal system and I knew he could break down the prosecution’s case in simple terms for my audience.”
Rausini – a friend of mine from prison – had recently been released after serving twenty-six years. In his past life, he had been a drug kingpin based in Los Angeles. According to the judge in his case, Rausini was a criminal mastermind of the first order. Despite how it sounds, he’s a great guy.
He is a recurring guest; and my go-to expert on drug trafficking, money laundering, and federal prison.
Because I had little knowledge of hip-hop culture, I asked Rausini to read Porter’s memoir. Rausini, on the other hand, had been a bigtime drug trafficker back in the 90’s. He frequented entertainment industry related parties in Beverly Hills. In fact, one of the guys he was doing drug business with was an artist associated with Death Row Records.
“When Matt asked me if I’d ever heard of someone named The Notorious B.I.G.,” said Rausini, “I knew he was in over his head.”
Almost immediately Rausini questioned the book’s authenticity. “When I finished reading the so-called memoir, I told Matt that it was saturated with false claims and misleading half-truths.” Rausini explained that anyone with an intent to fabricate the “memoir” after Porter’s death could have easily written the book by cobbling together rumors that have long circulated throughout the hip hop community.
“While it’s certainly not unreasonable to believe that Combs is a horrible person, the notion that Kim Porter (by all accounts a decent human being) would give him a pass on four or five murders is ridiculous,” said Rausini. “Then, there are the troubling allegations of child sex abuse.”
The “memoir” describes how Porter allegedly discovered tapes that Combs made of himself sexually abusing underage males. Porter reportedly found the videotapes in Combs’ bedroom “vault” and made copies for herself to protect against any backlash when she left him.
Rausini identified several circumstances which led him to conclude that Kim’s Lost Words was essentially a work of fiction masquerading as a memoir. “I was shocked that Todd had published the book without having fact-checked the material,” said Rausini. “But this is also a guy that will tell you that Kurt Cobain was murdered.”
DESPITE CHRIS TODD not wanting his name connected with the publishing of Kim’s Lost Words, after seeing the attention Wade’s appearance received and the subsequent book sales, he began reaching out to reporters.
Rolling Stone published an interview with Chris Todd on September 24, 2024, in which he told the magazine that he couldn’t guarantee that the “memoir’s” claims were factually accurate but that “he believes it to be true.” In the piece, regarding the book’s authenticity, Rolling Stone stated:
“Todd published the memoir under the pseudonym Jamal T. Millwood, a reference to a conspiracy theory that Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder was faked, and he is living under that alias.
According to Todd, two people allegedly close to Combs and Porter contacted Todd about the memoir, he says.
‘They said that they had her flash drive,’ Todd claims. ‘I didn’t ask too many questions about how they got it [or] where did it come from.’
Todd says he believes the memoir is real, but when pressed on who the sources are or how he could guarantee they had legitimate writings from Porter, Todd declines to give specifics on how he fact-checked or verified the material.
If somebody put my feet to the fire and they said, ‘Life or Death, is that book real?’ I have to say I don’t know.”
After publishing the book, Todd told the Associated Press that his sources provided him with a “flash drive, documents and tapes.” He then pieced them together to create the memoir. When pressed on who the sources were, Todd declined to name them.
“For Todd to have made those statements to Rolling Stone was insane,” said Rausini. “He just conceded that he couldn’t guarantee the authenticity or the accuracy of the book’s claims even though many of them were defamatory in nature if untrue.”
According to Rolling Stone, Todd claimed that he received a copy of the manuscript “shortly after Cassandra Ventura filed” her lawsuit against Sean Combs. This claim is false. Todd did not receive a copy of Porter’s “memoir” from Burgess until July of 2024 – some eight months after Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit was filed. Indeed, Todd published the “memoir” within six weeks of receiving it.
CHRIS TODD APPEARED ON the Marc Lamont Hill podcast to talk about the controversies surrounding Kim Porter’s alleged memoir. Hill went head-to-head with Todd, questioning his motives and accusing him of exploiting Porter’s memory. During the interview Todd conceded that Kim’s Lost Words may not have been entirely true. When pressed, he refused to identify who his sources for the manuscript were. Todd, however, insisted that his decision to publish Kim’s Lost Words wasn’t a money grab and that he published the book in good faith because “I’m the voice of the voiceless.”
AL B. SURE! INITIATED LEGAL action on September 27, 2024, sending a cease-and-desist letter to both Amazon and Kim’s Lost Words publisher Chris Todd. The letter claimed the book falsely portrayed Sure! as “engaging in fabricated sexual conduct, particularly with Sean Combs[.]” In the letter, Al B. Sure! demanded that the book’s sales be halted, and that Chris Todd, Amazon CEO Andy Jasse, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos issue a public apology.
I TEXTED CHRIS TODD on September 27, 2024, just after watching Todd’s interview on Marc Lamont Hill’s podcast: Bro, this is bad.
Todd texted: He got nothing. He sold us another bunch of books.
I texted: I seriously think you are underestimating your liability here. But I hope it works out for you. Hopefully, I am wrong, and everything works out.
Todd texted: You da man.
I texted: Bro, this video only got 6,600 views. We definitely need to do a podcast. My videos get a ton more views than this guy.
Todd texted: Next week.
On September 29, 2024, Todd contacted me. He texted me a copy of the cease-and-desist letter and stated: It’s the same exact lawyer from my EHRLICH/OJ 40 mil lawsuit in Miami. What are the chances of that?? 🤣
I texted: Are you planning on taking down the book?
Todd texted: Fuck no. Never. If Amazon pulls it, [t]hey owe us a bunch of money[.]
I CONTACTED Pierre Rausini after the exchanges with Chris Todd. Rausini said that Todd obviously didn’t grasp the implications of the statements he made during the Rolling Stone interview. When I reflect on that conversation, what stands out for me is Rausini’s prediction that the individual responsible for fabricating Porter’s memoir is a middle-aged black guy. “Someone in his mid-to-late 50’s,” said Rausini. “Does that sound like anyone you know?”
ON OCTOBER 1, 2024, I asked Wade Williamson to put me in contact with Courtney Burgess so that I could invite him to appear on my podcast. I also told Wade that Rausini was writing a book about the controversy surrounding Kim’s Lost Words and that he’d like to talk to Burgess.
That afternoon Burgess texted Cox: Hi Matt this is Courtney B! Wade’s friend.
I texted: Hey, how’s it going? I’m working with a writer regarding the Kim Porter manuscript. Would you mind answering questions regarding its origins?
Burgess and I spoke for half-an-hour. Burgess already knew who I was; he had watched Wade’s appearance on my podcast talking about Porter’s memoir. He confirmed that he was Chris Todd’s source for the manuscript; and claimed that he was in possession of three flash drives that belonged to Porter, one of which contained Porter’s unedited manuscript.
Burgess also claimed the flash drives contained several videos of Sean Combs engaging in sexual activity with celebrities and minors. Specifically, Burgess said there was footage of Combs sexually assaulting Usher and Justin Bieber.
According to Burgess, he obtained the flash drives from a woman named Kimora Simmons. He claimed that Simmons gave him the flash drives containing Porter’s writings and the videos the day after Porter’s funeral. Burgess said that he has known Combs for over three decades and has always despised him. He also said that he was friends with Porter for over twenty-five years. According to Burgess, Kimora Simmons entrusted him with the flash drives because she knew that Porter and Burgess were close friends, and that Burgess had the courage to expose Combs’ crimes.
Finally, with respect to Todd, Burgess told me that Todd had not seen any of the sex videos. Nor was Todd ever in possession of Porter’s flash drives containing the manuscript or the sex tapes. Burgess said Todd was badgering him for the sex videos because he’d been shopping them around. However, he was withholding the flash drives from Todd as leverage to ensure that he paid Burgess and Wade their share of the royalties from Kim’s Lost Words.
CHRIS TODD APPEARED on the Art of Dialogue podcast to promote Kim’s Lost Words. The conversation became heated with the host questioning Todd’s motives and casting doubt on the authenticity of the book. Todd defended his actions and the book’s authenticity by claiming that someone close to Porter had given him a flash drive loaded with an unedited copy of her notes and manuscript which he then used to assemble the book.
Todd also claimed that there were videos of Combs engaging in sexual activity stored on the flash drive. Specifically, Todd stated:
“Yes, there are tapes that exist … If I was to release those tapes, the world will shut down, okay. If I showed one of the tapes, to you right now, the whole music industry and Hollywood, it would just grind down like this. They are gonna start pointing at each other[.]”
When asked why he didn’t reveal everything from the alleged flash drives in Kim’s Lost Words, Todd claimed that he “couldn’t reveal everything at once” as they were “too shocking.”
Todd also mentioned that he had set up a meeting with federal authorities to hand over the videos.
The statements Todd made on the Art of Dialogue podcast spread rapidly through social media. These statements, however, were his most troubling because he claimed he saw video footage of Combs sexually assaulting celebrities, and he also implied that he was in possession of the flash drive containing these videos. Neither proposition, however, was true as Burgess, himself, had told me.
AMAZON RESPONDED TO THE backlash surrounding Porter’s alleged memoir by removing the book from its platform on October 2, 2024. Amazon confirmed that Kim’s Lost Words was no longer available after Porter’s family reported it was a complete fabrication. “We were made aware of a dispute regarding this title and have notified the publisher,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to the Associated Press. “The book is not currently for sale in our store.”
Courtney Burgess, however, was determined to capitalize on the publicity generated by the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the memoir. Within a couple of days of Amazon taking down Kim’s Lost Words, Burgess began marketing what he characterized as the “unedited” version of the memoir that he had originally published as Tell It All under the Jamal T. Millwood pseudonym.
“I WAS DOING RESEARCH regarding a book I was writing about the authenticity of Kim’s Lost Words,” said Rausini, when, on October 7, 2024, he spoke with Courtney Burgess regarding the book’s origins. “Courtney confirmed that he was given three flash drives that belonged to Kim Porter the day after Porter’s funeral in 2018.” However, Burgess did not want to disclose the identity of the woman who had given him the flash drives.
COURTNEY BURGESS APPEARED on the Inside True Crime podcast on October 18, 2024. During our interview, Burgess told me that he was Chris Todd’s source for the manuscript that Todd used to publish Kim’s Lost Words.
When asked whether the rumor that Porter kept videos of Sean Combs engaging in sex with celebrities was true, Burgess claimed that those videos existed.
Burgess described himself as a music producer and claimed that he was most famously known for working with Tupac Shakur. According to Burgess, he received eleven flash drives from a friend of Porter’s three months prior to her death,” leading him to believe she intended for the content to be used as evidence against Combs.
He claimed to be in possession of the flash drives that contained recordings of Combs having sex with celebrities, one of which was Jennifer Lopez. In addition, Burgess admitted that some of the videos captured Combs engaging in sexual activity with underage celebrities that appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. Specifically, he identified Usher, Justin Bieber, and added a third name to the list Jaden Smith (the actor Will Smith’s son).
When discussing this issue, I asked how he knew the boys were underage and he replied, “I tried to go by [Justin Bieber’s] tattoos,” said Burgess. “[H]e was pushing 16 hard or earlier … Yeah, I can say that he was about 15 or 16 …” Burgess went on to say that Usher “was definitely young … Usher had to be like 16.”
One of Burgess’ oddest revelations was that he had watched the sex tapes and was still in possession of the flash drives. When I suggested that he should contact federal law enforcement to give them the flash drives since they would likely be considered evidence, Burgess declined to do so. He explained that in the hip-hop community, that would have been considered “snitching.”
FOLLOWING THE RECORDING of the interview, I contacted Pierre Rausini, regarding Burgess’ inconsistencies. “Matt explained that Burgess had switched his story from receiving three flash drives after Kim Porter’s funeral to there now being eleven flash drives,” said Rausini. “Which he received before Porter’s death.” In addition, Burgess added Will Smith’s son to his list of Combs’ underage victims. “That’s when it became obvious that something was very wrong with Burgess’ story.”
Even stranger, was that Burgess didn’t seem to understand that (if what he was saying was true) he could be charged with possession of child pornography.
COURTNEY BURGESS MADE HEADLINES after the Inside True Crime podcast; I Have the Diddy Tapes! Diddy Insider Leaks Celebrity Victims, Tupac Secrets & Kim Porters Diary! was released on October 20, 2024. This was the first time Burgess publicly discussed his relationship with Sean and Kim Porter. Burgess was the first person to come forward since Combs’ arrest to claim to have seen video footage of Combs engaging in sex with celebrities. He was also the first person to claim that several of the celebrities were minors.
His appearance on the podcast ignited a firestorm on social media. People were disgusted by Burgess unwillingness to turn over the flash drives to law enforcement, and the anger flooded in sonoran_spells commented: Just reported you to the feds for possession of cp and not reporting it. afoxx3114 commented: Am I wrong, isn’t it against the law to be in POSSESSION of child pornography? DJDilllyGent commented: Admitting to having this footage is a crime. Iorenajonson1675 commented: So this man is telling us that he is in possession of child pornography? Isn’t that a crime? TechSavvyJoe commented: By giving the videos to someone else and not telling the police, he also committed distribution of child pornography. Teriz4506 commented: I’m sure someone watching this is going to call the FBI and report this.
This terrified Burgess, he texted me regarding the negative comments – over 3,300 of them – and the threats of being charged and going to prison.
THE MORNING AFTER I released the video of Courtney Burgess’s appearance, Burgess contacted me in a panic. According to Burgess, agents from the FBI had executed a search warrant on his home. He told me that the feds had ransacked his home. At 10:52 a.m., Burgess texted: “Feds came to my house and tore [sic] it up and took all my electronics equipment including my studio equipment.”
Of course, I didn’t believe a word Burgess said. Principally because the FBI is not involved in the Combs’ case! The agency investigating Combs is Homeland Security; they would have been the agency executing the search warrant. But I decided to play along.
I texted: I’m sorry about that. I think that once they spoke with Todd, you were on their list. Obviously, they’re going to want to get a hold of the flash drives. That’s why I suggested to you that you turn them in.
I contacted Rausini that night regarding Burgess’ make-believe raid. “The comments must have spooked him,” said Rausini. “He was trying to disseminate the narrative that law enforcement was already involved, and he no longer had the flash drives.” That way no commenters had to contact the authorities. “But there was never a raid,” laughed Rausini, “and he certainly didn’t have any proof of a raid.”
Regardless, the purported raid provided me with an opportunity to test Rausini’s theory. That evening, I texted Burgess: I have a friend who works for a big time federal criminal defense attorney. He wants to see the warrant the FBI left you during the raid. Can you send me a copy of it?
One minute later, at 6:49 p.m., Burgess texted: No! My lawyer has it with everything written on what they took.
I texted: Bro, you didn’t keep a copy of [the warrant]?
Burgess texted: No. I don’t need copies.
I texted: Can you get your lawyer to mail you a copy?
Burgess texted: For what? Matt I’m 54 years old. I don’t need show no one my business.
Burgess obviously couldn’t produce a copy of a search warrant that didn’t exist. This was all the evidence I needed to confirm Rausini’s theory that Burgess was lying.
I EXPECTED TO NEVER HEAR FROM Courtney Burgess again. Much to my surprise, I received a text from him on October 28, 2024: Hello.
I texted: Hey, what’s going on?
Burgess texted: They raid my house again! They looking for me.
I texted: Who?
Burgess texted: They told me turn myself in to New York. Homeland security.
This time, I believed that he had been at least visited by agents with Homeland Security. Thus, I texted: You need to turn yourself in. They probably just want to talk to you.
Burgess texted: SMH I don’t like place like [that]. You go in but don’t come out.
I texted: No. You’ll be fine. They just wanna know who gave you the flash drives. What are you going to do?
This time Burgess texted me the “Search Warrant,” which was in fact, not a search warrant at all, it was only a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury. Rausini and I quickly determined that Burgess had not been raided. “The more likely scenario,” said Rausini, “was that Burgess had been visited by federal agents with Homeland Security, and they had served him with a subpoena.”
The subpoena demanded Burgess produce: All records, including thumb drives, hard drives, electronic storage devices, and/or electronic devices containing video(s) and/or other documents or files, depicting Sean Combs …”
The subpoena had been issued on October 24, 2024. Media reporting indicated that the government first learned about Courtney Burgess four days earlier when he appeared on the Inside True Crime podcast.
DURING THE SAME PERIOD, October 27, 2024, Courtney Burgess appeared on the 2 Strong podcast. See 2 Strong, Courtney B “Claims” He Got Raided By Feds for Diddy Tapes (released on Oct. 31, 2024). During the interview Burgess told the host that six months before Kim Porter died an unnamed individual in her “inner circle” mailed him eleven flash drives (Id. at 3:55-4:12.) and after she died, he was contacted by Porter’s friend who asked if he had viewed the material. Burgess claimed that’s when he discovered the book’s manuscript and the sex videos.
On October 30, 2024, Burgess appeared on the Shaun Attwood podcast. During that podcast Burgess stated that he was given Porter’s flash drives by an unnamed man (who was subsequently shot and killed). See, Shaun Attwood, Diddy Insider Leaks Names, Insane Celeb Pics & Kim Porter’s Diary Extras (live stream on October 30, 2024) at 6:20-7:13.
On NewsNation, on October 31, 2024, Burgess told the host that he had obtained the flash drives belonging to Kim Porter from a man whom Porter had been dating at the time of her death. See, NewsNation, Full Interview: Diddy Court Witness Says He Saw 8 Sex Tapes With at Least 2 Celeb Minors (released on Nov. 1, 2024) at 7:37-7:43 (Burgess stating “I received it from a man; somebody she was dating”).
COURTNEY BURGESS APPEARED at the federal courthouse in New York to testify before the grand jury investigating Sean Combs on October 31, 2024. According to Burgess, “they played our interview for the jury and they was asking me questions about what I’d said on the podcast bout Diddy and Justin and Usher and all that.”
When the U.S. prosecutor asked about the flash drives, Burgess didn’t mention that they had been seized by the FBI during the fabricated raid, instead, he told the grand jury that he had “gotten rid of them.”
Afterwards, he and his attorney, Ariel Mitchell, gave a press conference outside the courthouse in Manhattan. They told TMZ that Burgess had been subpoenaed, and therefore, testified that he had been in possession of eleven flash drives that contained video footage of Combs engaging in sex with celebrities, including minors.
That evening, Burgess and his lawyer sat down for an interview with Ashleigh Banfield on NewsNation, where Burgess claimed that he once had flash drives that contained at least eight videos of Combs engaging in sex with celebrities, some of which appeared to be underage. Furthermore, when Banfield asked Burgess about his home being raided, Burgess’ attorney clarified that her client’s home had never been raided; federal agents had simply served him with a subpoena.
LESS THAN A WEEK LATER, the U.S. Attorney’s Officer requested that Burgess return to the grand jury to answer additional questions. At this point, however, Burgess’ attorney convinced her client to invoke the Fifth Amendment, thereby refusing to testify. Her concern being that if Burgess continued to answer questions, he may incriminate himself.
ATTORNEYS FOR SEAN COMBS petitioned the court for a gag order to prevent Courtney Burgess from making extrajudicial statements claiming a “deluge of improper pretrial publicity that is undermining Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial.”
In a letter to the judge, Combs’ attorneys assert that Burgess had been spreading “false” and “outrageous” claims without legal verification, including statements that he “possesses videos of Combs sexually abusing celebrities and minors.” Combs’ legal team vehemently denied the existence of such videos, arguing that Burgess’ statements have created a harmful media narrative.
“This witness—who has never even met Mr. Combs—claims that he received the tapes from an unnamed individual (who was subsequently shot and killed) along with a purported memoir of the deceased mother of Mr. Combs’ children that has since been denounced as fake.”
THE AUTHENTICITY OF KIM’S LOST WORDS and the existence of the Porter-flash drives hinge entirely on whether Burgess is credible. Neither Chris Todd nor Wade Williams can independently confirm whether the flash drives ever existed. All they knew is what Burgess told them. Burgess, alone, claimed that the book’s manuscript came from Porter’s flash drives. He is the only one who claims to have been in possession of them and he alone claims to have watched the videos.
However, for Burgess’ claim to be valid, his account of how he came into possession of Porter’s flash drives would have to be believable. His story, however, has evolved.
First, Burgess led Todd to believe that Kimora Simmons gave him a flash drive that belonged to Kim Porter shortly after Porter died in 2018 and that the flash drive contained some diary entries and a draft manuscript written by Porter. Burgess then told me the same lie: that it was Kimora Simmons who gave him Porter’s flash drives after Porter’s death. During our discussion, however, Burgess added one detail: that he had received three flash drives from Ms. Simmons, not one.
When Burgess discussed the same issue with Pierre Rausini, he also told Rausini that he received three flash drives from a close female friend of Porter’s after her death, omitting only the name of Porter’s female friend (Kimora Simmons).
When Burgess appeared on my podcast (Inside True Crime) in October, he changed his story again; claiming that an unnamed female friend of Kim Porter’s gave him eleven flash drives three months before Porter’s death in 2018. The following morning Burgess told me that the FBI had raided his home and seized the flash drives. However, two weeks later he testified to the grand jury that he had simply discarded the flash drives.
After his appearance on Inside True Crime, Burgess did multiple interviews to discuss the controversy surrounding the flash drives. In one version Burgess received them in the mail six months before Porter died (Oct. 27). On another podcast Burgess received the flash drives from an unnamed man in New York six months before Porter died (Oct. 30). On yet another podcast, Burgess claimed that he received Porter’s flash drives from the guy that Porter was dating in L.A. six months before her death (Oct. 31).
When discussing the matter with The New York Times, Burgess claimed he received the first of the flash drives in 2008, ten years before Porter’s death. According to Burgess, a music executive in Atlanta named Shakir Stewart delivered him a yellow envelope containing a couple of USB thumb drives for Porter that he ignored because he assumed “it was a demo tape … she wanted me to check out.” The Times noted that Burgess’s account is “difficult to corroborate because both Mr. Stewart and Ms. Porter are dead” and because Burgess refused to identify the “mutual friend” whom he claimed to have received additional flash drives from “around the time of Ms. Porter’s death[.’]”
Burgess has told at least six different stories about how he came into possession of Porter’s flash drives and at least three different stories about what happened to them. Relatives and friends of Porter have already dismissed all of his accounts as a fabrication. “I’ve never heard of this man in my life,” said Lawanda Lane, a close friend of Porter’s who lived with her for more than 20 years and has spoken out against Burgess’s claims.
When called back to testify before the grand jury, he declined; invoking the Fifth Amendment—refusing to answer any questions that may incriminate himself.
The only reasonable inference that can be drawn—given Burgess’ obvious credibility concerns along with the fact that no one else besides Burgess has seen the flash drives and the fact that Kimora Simmons has publicly stated that the Kim Porter “memoir” is a “fabrication”—is that there are no flash drives. This conclusion is bolstered by reporting in The New York Times (Nov. 22) which revealed that when he appeared before the grand jury to produce the evidence he claimed to be in possession of, Burgess “testified that he had disposed of the original flash drives containing the videos[.]” How convenient.
Burgess simply made all of this up to provide him with a basis to claim that he was in possession of Porter’s original unedited manuscript. A manuscript that I believe he authored.
There were no flash drives containing sex videos or Porter’s writings. Nor did Porter ever write a manuscript. Burgess tricked Todd into believing that Porter and Burgess had been close friends; that there was a manuscript; and that Porter’s close friend (Kimora Simmons) had entrusted Burgess with Porter’s writings to get the material published.
In the process, Burgess has managed to make a small fortune by aligning himself with the Combs prosecution team in order to keep selling a fake book to a gullible public.
Most troubling, however, is the impact that Burgess’s charade will have on the government’s case against Sean Combs, which has now been severely undermined. Burgess’ false statements about the existence of flash drives containing videos of Combs sexually abusing minors as well as his fabricated claims that federal agents seized the flash drives during a search of his home have garnered massive attention on social media, fueling the fire of online conspiracies. We now know, however, that both claims are untrue.
Burgess has selfishly placed the entire prosecution of Sean Combs in jeopardy. His fabricated stories have created the widely held impression that the feds are in possession of the videos, saturating the public with false and materially inaccurate claims that the government knows are untrue and have failed to undertake any action to correct.
Indeed, by failing to check the fabricated claims being publicly disseminated by Burgess the government has tainted the jury pool by creating the false impression that it’s crediting Burgess’s account, which is profoundly prejudicial. The government’s inaction in the face of such highly prejudicial conduct by one of its own grand jury witnesses may very well have undermined Combs’ right to a fair trial and may result in his indictment being dismissed on constitutional grounds or pursuant to the court’s supervisory powers.
In Courtney Burgess’s haste to make a profit off of Kim Porter’s death, he may just set Sean “Diddy” Combs free.