Breaking Down Jay-Z’s Addition to a Diddy Case
And his plot to take down the lawyer exposing it all.
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As Sean Combs sits in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a federal criminal trial on racketeering and sex-trafficking charges, civil lawsuits against him alleging sexual assault and rape have been piling up. Unnamed celebrities have been dotted throughout the lawsuits as attendees at Combs’s legendary parties. But this week, Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who has said he plans to file 120 civil lawsuits against Combs, refiled one to publicly name Jay-Z as an alleged perpetrator. Below, how Jay-Z got drawn into a lawsuit against Combs and the fallout that ensued.
What are the allegations in the lawsuit?
On November 18, attorneys representing Jay-Z filed a lawsuit using the alias John Doe against Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that he was trying to extort their client. According to Jay-Z’s attorneys, Buzbee sent a letter in November that alleged their client “raped multiple minors, both male and female, who had been drugged at parties hosted by Combs.” Jay-Z’s attorneys said Buzbee’s letter, which they referred to as an “extortion demand,” suggested either resolving the matter in confidential mediation or that Buzbee would take a “different course.” They said their client faced “a gun to his head — either repeatedly pay an exorbitant sum of money to stop [Buzbee] from the wide publication of wildly false allegations of sexual assault.” The lawsuit called the allegations raised against Jay-Z “baseless” and “a weapon in a calculated plot to destroy [his] high-profile reputation for profit despite the complete absence of any factual basis for such claims.”
Who is Tony Buzbee, and why is Jay-Z suing him?
Buzbee is a personal-injury attorney who has said publicly that he represents more than 120 alleged victims of Combs. He has filed close to 20 civil lawsuits against Combs, who is currently being held in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a May 5 trial on charges of federal racketeering, conspiracy, and sex trafficking.
Buzbee’s interaction with Jay-Z’s legal team began after he filed a federal lawsuit against Combs on October 20, alleging Combs and a then-unnamed celebrity drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 Video Music Awards. At the time, the lawsuit was the 21st civil case filed against Combs.
A month later, attorneys representing Jay-Z filed their own lawsuit against Buzbee alleging Buzbee “shamelessly” attempted to extort exorbitant sums in a “calculated plot to destroy” Jay-Z’s reputation. A week later, Buzbee posted that he discovered that a private investigator had been calling former employees of the Buzbee Law Firm trying to get information on any “negative experiences” they may have had while working with him.
“I’ve never had a situation where I send a basic mediation demand and we’ve gotten this type of response,” Buzbee wrote. “ Wonder what they are hiding or what they are afraid of being exposed??!?”
A spokesperson for Jay-Z’s attorney’s law firm, Quinn Emanuel, said the firm had no involvement in retaining the private investigator Buzbee cited, nor did it have any involvement in any private investigators going door-to-door offering money and attempting to dig up dirt on Buzbee.
How is Jay-Z involved in allegations against Diddy?
Originally, the lawsuit against Combs filed on October 20 mentioned only an unnamed celebrity allegedly taking part in the alleged rape of this 13-year-old girl, but after the ratcheting-up tactic and words, Buzbee took the step to unmask Jay-Z as one of the alleged perpetrators. On December 8, Buzbee amended the lawsuit to publicly name Jay-Z as a celebrity who he alleged raped a drugged 13-year-old girl at a VMA after-party in 2000 while an unnamed female celebrity and Combs watched. The next day, Buzbee posted that despite a “coordinated and aggressive effort” against him including mysterious people following him and his family and contacting his clients and former employees, he “won’t be intimidated and back down.” That same day, Jay-Z showed up on the red carpet of the Mufasa: Lion King premiere with his wife, Beyoncé, his daughter Blue Ivy, 12, and his mother-in-law, Tina Knowles.
How did Roc Nation and Jay-Z respond?
Jay-Z’s response was swift. He posted a lengthy statement on X. He said his lawyer received a “blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a ‘lawyer’ named Tony Buzbee.” He said he would not give Buzbee “ONE RED PENNY!” And he added that he was determined to expose him as a “fraud.” He questioned why the allegations against him had not been filed in a criminal court, saying “whoever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away.” Jay-Z said his “only heartbreak is for my family,” and that he and Beyoncé would have to sit down with his children and explain the allegations. The post was originally deleted and then amended and reposted to add a final sentence: “I look forward to showing you just how different I am.”
Did anyone in Jay-Z’s family respond?
Initially, news spread that Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, liked a post from ABC 7 Chicago reporting on the allegation against Jay-Z. But then a short while later, Knowles said that she had been hacked. “As you all know, I don’t play about my family,” she posted after saying she was hacked. “So you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that it is not me!”
What’s the latest statement from lawyers?
Buzbee called Jay-Z’s attorney’s allegations that he tried to extort money or else threatened to file publicly and name the rapper “patently false.”
“We represent clients making claims,” Buzbee told Vulture. “Mr. Carter’s shrill attempts to divert attention to me won’t work.”
Buzbee said he merely sent a standard demand letter seeking confidential mediation in lieu of a lawsuit. He said the letter made no monetary demand and included no threats. He said that “the demand letters sent are no different than the ones routinely sent by lawyers across the country in all types of cases.”
“This is silly,” Buzbee told Vulture. “I understand his position is that the claims made by my clients are untrue. Attacking me, however, is a pretty weak defense.”
Will other celebrity names come out?
Possibly. At this point, several of Buzbee’s lawsuits against Combs mention other celebrities being present at parties where these assaults were alleged to have taken place. But at his point, no other celebrity has been publicly named besides Jay-Z.
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