Lawyer Tony Buzbee is claiming Jay-Z is “harassing” his family after filing a civil lawsuit that accused the rapper of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000.
“The New York Times contacted me to ask for my response to rapper Jay-Z’s allegation that I tried to extort and blackmail him,” Buzbee said in a statement via X on Tuesday, December 10. “My response is pretty straightforward. No one has made any threats. Jay Z’s assertions are bogus and laughable.”
Buzbee went on to claim his firm’s approach was not blackmail but rather standard practice.
“Instead, our firm sent a standard demand letter seeking a mediation on behalf of a woman who alleges Jay-Z sexually assaulted her as a minor,” he continued. “The letter was vetted and approved by our client, whose preference was to attempt resolution short of filing a lawsuit.”
Buzbee called that approach “common” in those types of cases. “What you are seeing played out now is a coordinated and desperate effort to focus the public’s attention on me personally to avoid attention on the allegations being made by my clients,” he wrote. “This effort has included harassing my family and colleagues and even offering former clients money to sue me — which is illegal.”
The attorney added, “When an alleged perpetrator behaves in this manner, wildly asserting that a basic demand letter is ‘extortion,’ and aggressively using the media to attack the opposing lawyer while at the same time ignoring the allegations being made by the alleged victim, it reminds me of a famous line from Shakespeare: ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’”
Buzbee alleged that he intends to address those issues in court. “Let me be clear: We will not be bullied or intimidated by these shenanigans,” he concluded. “And our clients won’t be silenced.”
Us Weekly reached out to Jay-Z’s rep for comment.
News broke on Sunday, December 8, that Jay-Z, 55, and Sean “Diddy” Combs were named as defendants in a civil lawsuit that accused them of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old. Identified as Jane Doe in the docs, the woman claimed the assault occurred at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty in 2000.
The lawsuit was initially filed in October and listed Diddy, also 55, as the sole defendant. It was refiled on Sunday to include Jay-Z.
Jay-Z denied the allegations in a statement to Us and referenced his wife, Beyoncé, and their three kids, daughter Blue Ivy, 12, and twins Rumi and Sir, both 8.
He also directed his response at Buzbee. “You seem to exploit people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable,” Jay-Z wrote on Sunday.
Jay-Z claimed his lawyer received a “blackmail attempt called a demand letter” from Buzbee. “What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle,” the rapper said. “No sir, it had the opposite effect! It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a VERY public fashion. So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!”
While calling the allegations “heinous,” Jay-Z noted that he had “done a bit of research” on Buzbee, who has filed lawsuits on behalf of many of Diddy’s alleged victims. Diddy is incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after being arrested in September on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He has denied the accusations. Us has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
“I have no idea how you have come to be such a deplorable human Mr. Buzbee, but I promise you I have seen your kind many times over,” Jay-Z wrote. “I’m more than prepared to deal with your type. You claim to be a marine?! Marines are known for their valor, you have neither honor nor dignity.”
In a separate statement to TMZ on Sunday, Buzbee claimed that the woman accusing Jay-Z of rape “never demanded a penny from him.”
“Mr. Carter previously denied being the one who sued me and my firm. He even filed his frivolous case under a pseudonym. What he fails to say in his recent statement is my firm sent his lawyer a demand letter on behalf of an alleged victim and that victim never demanded a penny from him,” Buzbee told the outlet, accusing Jay-Z of being the anonymous male celebrity who filed a lawsuit against him last month.
Buzbee continued: “Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation. Since I sent the letter on her behalf, Mr. Carter has not only sued me, but he has tried to bully and harass me and this plaintiff. His conduct has had the opposite impact. She is emboldened. I’m very proud of her resolve.”
Buzbee was sued last month by an unidentified male celebrity who claimed that the lawyer was “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him.” In the filing, the person alleged that Buzbee’s law firm was attempting to capitalize on the “explosive allegations against Sean Combs” by pulling in celebrities who had previously been acquainted with Diddy.
In his motion to dismiss the sexual assault lawsuit, Jay-Z confirmed that he was the person who filed the November extortion claim against Buzbee. In that filing, the rapper asked the court to dismiss Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction due to the plaintiff’s lack of standing,” per court documents obtained by Us on Monday, December 9.
While asking the court to disclose the identity of Jane Doe publicly, Jay-Z claimed that Buzbee created an “extortionate campaign” against him for several months.
“That campaign was cynical and calculated to force payment of an exorbitant sum of money — Defendant would have to pay X millions of dollars irrespective of the truth, or else,” the document read. “When Defendant refused to pay and instead took measures to establish his innocence, this unnamed Plaintiff and her self-promoting counsel (whose name has been splashed across headlines and press conferences under auspices of representing her) went to extraordinary lengths to shut down fair defense.”
Jay-Z alleged that Buzbee “leveled baseless accusations” against him while “hiding behind the pseudonym ‘Jane Doe.’”
“These claims are not about justice for victims. Nor are they about giving victims of sexual violence a voice,” the filing read. “Instead, they are merely the next chapter in Attorney Buzbee’s sprawling extortion saga — a saga whose aim is base and measured in dollars.”
Buzbee responded to Jay-Z’s dismissal on Monday, telling Us in a statement, “Sending a basic litigation demand letter and then filing a lawsuit isn’t extortion or blackmail. That’s the legal practice. We will respond to Mr. Carter’s filing once we review it. We won’t get bogged down in a silly sideshow that tries to make the lawyers the focus of what are very serious allegations brought by a courageous woman.”
Hours later, Jay-Z stepped out to attend the premiere of Disney’s Mufasa in Hollywood, California, with Beyoncé, 43, Blue Ivy, and his mother-in-law, Tina Knowles.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
