Diddy's Legal Team Not Backing Down From Lawsuit After Diageo Separation

Diddy's ongoing lawsuit with alcohol dealer Diageo just took a nasty turn, with the booze brand announcing they were cutting ties after he filed suit last month ... but Diddy is firing back.

Diddy's attorney John C. Hueston tells TMZ Hip Hop Diageo's attempts to shut out the Bad Boy mogul is essentially like "firing a whistleblower who calls out racism. It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination."

Hueston says Diddy repeatedly raised concerns regarding Diageo's senior execs allegedly using racially insensitive comments prior to filing the lawsuit, which they claim caused biased decision-making on the company's part.

For it's part, a Diageo spokesperson tells us, "We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership. Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship. Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands."

They continue, "Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs. We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments. We have exhausted every reasonable remedy and see no other path forward."

Diageo is said to have acknowledged the issues by specifying in Diddy's contract that they'd treat his DeLeon tequila the same as other tequila brands, and he only filed the lawsuit in hopes to enforce the contract's fine print.