'Culture of silence': Lawyer calls Diddy's NDA terrifying, purposefully intimidating

The ambiguity created by the agreement’s terms is intentional, Elliot said. Any normal person with little legal knowledge would fear of the prospect of being sued by referring to someone or something that they did not know even involved Diddy.

“It’s not only designed and intended to create that culture of silence and intimidation, but any reasonable person reading this would think they would just need to shut up,” he said.

However, the NDA is not bulletproof, and Elliot added it would be unenforceable. A signor would be allowed to talk about Diddy and his associates if they were mandated to by a court, such as a subpoena or police investigation, and to seek legal counsel.

While those loopholes exist, Elliot thinks a normal person wouldn’t know. The fear alone would stop them from reporting a possible crime involving Diddy or his associates if they can’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The most likely response from people would be ‘I didn’t see anything’ or ‘I don’t know,’ if they would say anything at all,” Elliot said of signers who may have seen a crime committed.

When are NDAs needed?

A celebrity — or someone of high net worth — may request an NDA for people who work for them, including assistants and housemaids, to protect information they may not want publicly disclosed, said South Florida attorney Brad Cohen, who has represented celebrities like Drake, Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.

“When you’re dealing with people of high-net worth … the motivation to make things up, leak information, get paid for information increases,” Cohen said.

There’s a multitude of business reasons for having an NDA signed, Cohen said. If something happens at a location in which a prominent individual is affiliated, it could affect their business dealings. For musicians, they may want to protect their music from being prematurely released to the public.

“It’s more of a protection for the high net worth or popular person from, usually, nefarious individuals ...” Cohen said.

Elliot believes it is more likely that the NDA offered to Jones and others was an emergency agreement, and Diddy’s team has a better-worded and less ambiguous document for other matters.

“This is speculation, but this [NDA] seems like the sort of one you have in your back pocket when something really bad goes down and you want to cover it up,” he said.