Did the judge in the sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs issue an arrest warrant for Ellen DeGeneres in May 2025? No, that's not true: The claim appeared in a YouTube video whose description labeled it "entirely fictional and crafted solely for entertainment." Despite widespread and intensive news coverage, no outlet covering the trial has mentioned any involvement by DeGeneres.
The rumor appeared in a May 31, 2025, video on YouTube (archived here), which bore the title "1 HOUR AGO: Judge Orders Ellen DeGeneres Arrest After tWitch's Recording Is Played in Diddy's Trial."
At the outset of the video, a voice could be heard saying:
In a stunning development from the Superior Court of California, this morning Judge Harrison Trent has formally signed off on arrest warrants for media personality Ellen DeGeneres, following the unsealing and courtroom playback of a previously undisclosed audio recording left behind by the late Stephen "tWitch" Boss.
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: YouTube screenshot)
In the summer of 2025, Combs was on trial in federal court, on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution, not in a California superior court, as the video falsely claimed. Furthermore, the judge overseeing that trial was U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, not "Harrison Trent".
The trial has formed the basis of widespread and intensive news coverage since it opened on May 5. If the presiding judge had issued an arrest warrant for a celebrity as well known as DeGeneres, that would undoubtedly have been mentioned in news reports.
A Google News search for the words "Ellen DeGeneres", "Diddy" and "warrant" yielded no relevant results, further demonstrating that the rumor was false.
Indeed, the description under the video itself conceded as much, stating:
The stories presented on this channel are entirely fictional and crafted solely for entertainment.
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For previous Lead Stories debunks about Sean "Diddy" Combs, click here.
