A “cavalcade of misconduct” and “rule breaking.”
That’s just the polite version of what Jay-Z today is accusing an alleged rape victim’s lawyer of.
Having deftly gotten out front and before the cameras early over claims of rape, abuse and sex assaults by Sean “Diddy” Combs, Tony Buzbee is representing a woman who alleges ‘Hard Knock Life’ rapper Jay-Z joined Bad Boy Records founder Combs and a still unnamed female “Celebrity B” in raping her decades ago in New York when the she was a mere 13-years-old.
Now, Houston-based Buzbee isn’t taking the polite nor the scathing claims lying down in court filings of his own Wednesday in this ever escalating legal and increasingly personal conflict.
As the incarcerated Combs faced another hearing in his sex trafficking criminal case, lawyers for Jay-Z (a.k.a. Shawn Carter) are once again asking a federal judge to toss out the claims against their client in this civil case. The brutal attack by the alleged trio on a then minor Jane Doe is said to have occurred on September 7, 2000 during one of Diddy’s drug fueled so-called “freak offs” just after that year’s MTV VMA
Buzbee today sued Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, lawyer Mary Croft and high-priced law firm Quinn Emanuel for barratry and more, as the rapper’s pugilistic attorney Alex Spiro on Wednesday put forth a proposed order to Judge Analisa Torres to prevent Buzbee from possible “evidence destruction.”
“Taken together, the factual inconsistencies, timeline impossibilities, and the lack of corroborating evidence make Plaintiff’s allegations in the FAC wholly unreliable,” exclaims a memorandum of law for Carter’s emergency motion for an order to show cause and an order for the preservation of evidence.
A graphic October 20 filed lawsuit named Combs for the rape, but merely mentioned a male “Celebrity A” and a “Celebrity B” as participants. On December 8, an amended complaint blew up the internet by naming Jay-Z as “Celebrity A.” Jay-Z countered in a handwritten statement that denied he raped anyone and said in part: “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!”
In the suddenly fast-moving case, Wednesday’s proposed order comes ten days after Jay-Z was unmasked as the alleged Celebrity A in the group rape. It also follows, in quick succession, the rap superstar asked for the case to be dismissed, and the Jane Doe plaintiff’s lawyer getting into personal and professional beefs with Jay-Z and his lawyers accusing them of trying to bribe clients.
Significantly, prompting a defense presentation at Roc Nation’s HQ on December 16 after Jay-Z called the whole thing a “sham,” on December 13, the Jane Doe appeared on NBC with a different telling of what supposedly happened to her than her own court filings say. Just like he did in Alec Baldwin’s now dismissed manslaughter case and others for other very well-known clients, Spiro has jumped on those points of contention and self-declared “mistakes” from the accuser herself, her first amended complaint and some legal tap dancing by the usually vociferous Buzbee. As today’s filing to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres says:
The fundamental inconsistencies in Plaintiff’s case revealed in the NBC interview, coupled with Buzbee’s chronic inability to follow the rules in this case and others, creates a substantial risk that Buzbee will destroy evidence damaging to Plaintiff’s case, including evidence of his own misconduct, impairing the integrity of the judicial process. An order immediately mandating the reservation of all evidence relevant to this case is necessary to ensure that Mr. Carter has a full and fair opportunity to present his defense against Plaintiff’s fictitious claims. That Buzbee is not admitted to this Court—and thus is apparently attempting to avoid its disciplinary authority—only underscores the pressing need for such an order. For the same reasons, all of Plaintiff’s allegations about Mr. Carter are scandalous, warranting striking them from the FAC
As al this is happening in the Empire State, down south in the Lone Star state, local power player Buzbee officially doubled down on his previous accusations that Jay-Z’s team were trolling for lawsuits against the attorney and his firm with offers of $1,0000 to $10,000 and more.
With claims of alleged investigators working for Roc Nation and Jay-Z’s lawyer flashing “fake badges” and more to dig up dirt and pushed the likes of ex-Buzbee client Gerardo Garcia to express dissatisfaction with the settlement Buzbee secured for him in another matter. “During some of the contacts, the investigators were pushy, and in at least two, they pretended to be acting on behalf of the State of Texas,” one of the filing says.
The filing today in Harris County, Texas, is the latest response by Buzbee to counter ambulance chasing claims against him by the ’99 Problems’ star from the media war of words to a November 18 action in LA Superior Court from a “celebrity and public figure” John Doe insisting Buzbee was trying to “extort exorbitant sums” from what we now know is Jay-Z.
As he has in the past, Buzbee Wednesday took news of his action and allegations to social media.
“This conduct was specifically targeted at our firm so we would not pursue cases related to the Diddy litigation,” the lawyer said in an Instagram post on the lawsuits. “LET ME BE CLEAR: we will not be bullied or intimidated. The Defendants this time overstepped, got sloppy, and stupidly got caught at their illegal scheme on tape. We have reported this conduct to the authorities and intend to cooperate with the authorities to ensure all involved are prosecuted to the full extent allowed under Texas law.”
Contacted by Deadline about Tony Buzbee’s latest legal move, a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan spokesperson bluntly said: “We assume this frivolous lawsuit is an attempt to distract from his other frivolous lawsuits. We have no idea what he is talking about.”
Buzbee’s office did not respond to repeated requests from Deadline on today’s filings and events. If the Buzbee Law Firm does get back to us, this post will be updated.
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