Attorney Tony Buzbee has vehemently denied accusations from JAY-Z’s legal team, promising forthcoming evidence of alleged wrongdoing by JAY-Z’s defense counsel.
The showdown stems from a case filed by a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe, who accuses JAY-Z, along with Sean “Diddy” Combs, of sexually assaulting her after an MTV Vide Music Awards afterparty in 2000.
On Tuesday (December 10), JAY-Z’s legal team asserted that Buzbee, who represents a Jane Doe, manipulated another alleged victim to fabricate claims against high-profile figures as part of a financial extortion plot.
Attorney Alex Spiro, representing JAY-Z, submitted a detailed motion in court alleging unethical practices by Buzbee’s team.
“To be clear, my firm and I categorically deny all of the baseless allegations levied by Mr. Carter and his counsel in these letters,” Buzbee said in a fiery statement denying the claims. “We will respond in due course and due time, through memoranda of law and other appropriate means, to the legal issues at hand as well as the accusations raised by Mr. Carter and his counsel.”
Spiro’s filing included testimony from a member of his legal team who said an anonymous woman who reportedly approached Buzbee’s firm with unrelated accusations of abuse, was coerced into tying her claims to JAY-Z and Diddy.
According to Mari Henderson, another attorney for JAY-Z, Buzbee’s team pressured the woman to craft a narrative implicating the two Hip-Hop icons despite her protests.
“The woman spoke with three members of Mr. Buzbee’s firm and provided details regarding her experiences as a victim of trafficking by celebrities entirely unrelated to Mr. Combs (or Mr. Carter),” Henderson said. “And she was told they would take on her representation.”
Henderson recounted how attorneys in Buzbee’s office allegedly prodded the woman to falsely claim she had been drugged, assaulted, and physically restrained, going so far as to push for her to pursue the case anonymously.
“When the woman made clear she was unwilling to adapt to the narrative Mr. Buzbee’s firm laid out and wanted only to speak her truth, she was dropped as a client and told that Mr. Buzbee’s firm was unwilling to represent her any longer,” Henderson added.
The woman later expressed fears of retaliation from Buzbee, a claim that has added another volatile layer to the lawsuit.
JAY-Z has consistently denied all accusations, dismissing the lawsuit and Buzbee’s alleged tactics as little more than a “shakedown.”
Buzbee, however, doubled down on his stance, criticizing the defense team’s integrity and vowing to present hard evidence of alleged misconduct on their part.
“We also will address verifiable improprieties committed by defense counsel, outright illegal conduct for which we have actual evidence rather than vague hearsay declarations,” Buzbee said. “For the moment, we simply want to timely inform the Court that such responses will be forthcoming.”