Bodyguard at center of sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” combs has sued the accuser and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, for defamation, denying that he was the man who allegedly attacked her and filmed the alleged assault.

Joseph Sherman sued Thalia Graves in federal court in New York on Friday. after she filed a lawsuit against him and Combs in late September.alleging that the two drugged, tied up and violently raped her at Bad Boy Entertainment founder’s recording studio, Daddy’s House, in 2001.

Graves claimed that years of trauma were compounded when she learned in late November 2023, days after Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her explosive sex trafficking lawsuit against Combs, that, the lawsuit said, “Combs and Sherman had recorded on “Video of the horrible rape twenty-five years ago.” two years earlier and had shown the video to several men.” Graves claimed she learned about the tape from an ex-boyfriend, who also allegedly told her that the video was being sold as pornography.

However, Sherman claims that everything in Graves’ lawsuit is “completely and completely false,” saying he stopped working for Combs in 1999 and never even met Graves. “Plaintiff never met Defendant, never engaged in any non-consensual sexual or physical interaction with her, and did not participate in the alleged events,” the countersuit alleges. “Simply put, there is no possible way that plaintiff Joseph Sherman ever touched, recorded, or had anything to do with Thalia Graves.”

As part of his lawsuit, Sherman included 12 pages of screenshots that he claimed were between him and Graves on Nov. 29, 2023, where Graves allegedly “tried to persuade Joseph Sherman to serve as a witness against Mr. Combs.”

In the messages purportedly coming from Graves, the sender begins by asking if Sherman had worked for Combs and instructs Sherman to call his number. “If you are my witness against Diddy, then my lawyers will leave you out of any proceedings,” reads an alleged message from Graves. “I will make sure the state does not file charges or rape charges against you.”

Sherman claims he has suffered financial and reputational damage from the allegations, and is suing Graves, Allred and other parties on multiple counts, including defamation, emotional distress, negligence and abuse of process, among others. (Allred and Graves did not immediately respond to rolling stonerequest for comments.)

Graves is among nearly 30 people who sued Combs and some of his associates for sexual abuse after Ventura started the domino effect last November. Sherman is the first defendant to countersue an accuser.

Combs, 55, was arrested in manhattan on Sept. 16, charged with sex trafficking, conspiracy to extort and transportation for prostitution. In a 14-page indictment, prosecutors for the Southern District of New York said Combs ran a criminal enterprise that engaged in “unlawful acts of violence, including sexual violence,” interstate transportation for the purposes of prostitution, narcotics distribution, arson, bribery, kidnapping and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said a primary function of the alleged enterprise was to “lure female victims into Combs’ orbit, often under the guise of a romantic relationship,” and then use “force, threats of force and coercion” to causing victims to engage in “elaborate and produced sexual performances” that Combs called “freak-offs.”