DALLAS (TX)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
March 27, 2024
By Josh Shepherd
T.D. Jakes, influential pastor of Dallas megachurch The Potter’s House, has been mentioned in a lawsuit against embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
On Monday, producer Rodney “Lil’ Rod” Jones alleged in a lawsuit that Combs engaged in a multi-year “sex trafficking venture.” The sordid 98-page legal complaint mentions Jakes once, as part of a list of evidence that Jones “has personally witnessed and secured.”
Jones’ accusations are related to multiple allegations of sexual assault against Combs, including a suit filed in November by Cassie Ventura, Combs’ former girlfriend. Earlier this week, agents raided Combs’ residences in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a federal sex-trafficking investigation.
In the suit filed Monday, Jones claimed he has “irrefutable evidence” that detail “how (Combs) planned to leverage his relationship with Bishop T.D. Jakes, to soften the impact on his public image of Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit.” No allegations of wrongdoing were made against Jakes in the suit.
The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to a spokesperson for Jakes, but she declined to comment on the record.
Several celebrities are named in Jones’ lawsuit, including Prince Harry, rap artist Yung Miami, and actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
As previously reported by TRR, Combs’ then-girlfriend Ventura, in her lawsuit, accused Combs of rape and repeated physical abuse over about a decade.
Last year, four other plaintiffs filed civil lawsuits against Combs accusing him of rape, sex trafficking a minor, assault, and several other alleged abuses, The Columbian reported at the time. Combs and his attorneys have denied the accusations.
Jakes was drawn into Combs’ controversies after the pastor attended Combs’ 53rd birthday party in Los Angeles on Nov. 4 last year.
However, Derrick Williams, executive vice president of TD Jakes Entertainment, told The Christian Post that Jakes only briefly attended the party because Jakes’ sermons are aired on Revolt Network, where Combs served as chairman at the time.
Williams said Jakes made a brief appearance to greet the Combs family and then left. “Any accusation to the contrary is wholly unsubstantiated, unverified, and false,” Williams said.
Combs subsequently stepped down as chairman of Revolt Network, the Dallas Morning News reported, and the music mogul has sold his stake in the company.
According to an NBC News report, some real footage of Jakes appearing at Combs’ party was remixed with AI-generated video and audio in several videos that “flooded” YouTube in late December and early January. Many such manipulated videos have since been removed.
The news report on Jan. 30 cited deepfake detection expert Siwei Lyu, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University at Buffalo, who reviewed videos that came up in a search of “TD Jakes.”
Detection tools that Lyu used found that audio of Jakes in at least one YouTube video was “more than 90% likely to have been AI-generated.”
Jakes referenced the misinformation being spread about him in a Dec. 24 sermon at The Potter’s House. “All of you who expect me to address a lie, you can log off,” Jakes said.
In that Christmas Eve sermon, Jakes called his accusers “liars.” He added, regarding the allegations, that even “if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart.”
Beyond his role as a pastor, Jakes is known for being a “charismatic leader, visionary, provocative thinker, and entrepreneur,” according to the Potter’s House website. The church reportedly had 30,000 members as of 2021.
A ministry spokesperson, Jordan Hora, later stated that claims being spread about Jakes via social media “are unequivocally false and baseless.”
“Chairman Jakes (is) undeterred by false, perverse, ignorant, and conspiratorial speculations,” he added.