An unnamed celebrity has sued a prominent Houston attorney representing more than 120 men and women against Sean “Diddy” Combs, claiming the attorney is “shamelessly” trying to extort him.
The man, who describes himself as a prominent figure and has attended several events over the years with Combs, sued attorney Tony Buzbee in California on Monday, claiming he received a demand letter from Buzbee’s firm with “entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault” in an alleged attempt to force a private settlement.
The alleged demand letter included “wildly false horrific allegations” that the man “raped multiple minors, both male and female, who had been drugged at parties hosted by Combs.” These accusations would be made public in a forthcoming lawsuit if the man “refuse[d] to comply with their demands,” according to the court documents obtained by Rolling Stone.
“Plaintiff presently faces a gun to his head — either repeatedly pay an exorbitant sum of money to stop defendant from the wide publication of wildly false allegations of sexual assault that would subject plaintiff to opprobrium and irreparably harm plaintiff’s reputation, family, career and livelihood, or else face the threat of an untold number of civil suits and financial and personal ruin,” the lawsuit alleges. “This is textbook extortion.”
The John Doe’s lawyer claims Buzbee has pivoted to seeking monetary damages from other deep-pocketed figures in light of Combs being held without bail and “payments [are] unlikely to be forthcoming” in the near future. “Defendants devised a scheme to obtain payments through the use of coercive threats from anyone with any ties to Combs — no matter how remote — who was of sufficient means and reputation for defendants to expect the would pay an exorbitant sum of money rather than be named,” the lawsuit claims.
Buzbee quickly fired back on Monday afternoon, calling the “powerful” man’s lawsuit a “last-ditch attempt” to block him from publicly naming the individual. “I am a US Marine,” the national trial attorney wrote in an Instagram statement. “I won’t be silenced or intimidated. Neither will my clients.”
Buzbee, who boasts that he has collected more than $10 billion in damages for his clients, first entered into the growing civil litigation against Combs in late September and claimed he was representing more than 100 clients with sexual abuse claims against Combs and his associates. (Combs has vehemently denied all accusations of sexual assault, with his team calling Buzbee’s lawsuits and press conferences “attempts to garner publicity.”)
Apart from the sheer number of alleged victims he is representing, Buzbee also caused a storm of headlines when he alleged that some of his clients were minors at the time of the alleged sexual assaults, including a nine-year-old boy.
In the following weeks, his firm filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Combs in New York, with alleged incidents dating back to the 1990s and as recent as December 2022. The Jane and John Doe accusers claim they were assaulted and sometimes drugged at White Parties, award show after-parties, department store stockrooms, industry events, and at Combs’ own home.
“It is obvious that the frivolous lawsuit filed against my firm is an aggressive attempt to intimidate or silence me and ultimately my clients,” Buzbee added in his statement. “The letters were sent seeking a confidential mediation in lieu of filing a lawsuit. No amount of money was included in the demand letters. No threats were made. The demand letters sent are no different than the ones routinely sent by lawyers across the country in all types of cases.”
In October, Buzbee indicated that he planned on sending out demand letters to unnamed celebrities in order to keep the cases out of the public eye. “In every single case, especially cases like this… because it’s in the best interests of the victim, we attempt to resolve these matters without the filing of a public lawsuit and we’ve done that already with a handful of individuals, many of which you’ve heard of before,” Buzbee told TMZ.
Now that the matter has been made public through the highly unusual preemptive lawsuit, Buzbee says his firm will disclose the demand letters as part of their court filings once the lawsuit is officially filed. The John Doe is being represented by powerhouse law firm Quinn Emanuel and is suing for extortion and infliction of emotional distress.
The unnamed celebrity’s extortion lawsuit is the latest wrinkle in the fervor surrounding Combs and the sexual abuse accusations against him. His family has already had to deny the existence of an alleged memoir from his late partner Kim Porter.
The Bad Boy Entertainment founder is currently charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to the three counts against him. The media mogul was arrested in New York City on Sept. 16 and has been detained since; he’s currently housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn.
Southern District of New York prosecutors claim that Combs used his billion-dollar empire as a “criminal enterprise” to commit a range of offenses, according to the indictment, including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
Although prosecutors didn’t directly name Combs’ ex-partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in the 14-page indictment against Combs, it was clear that she was “Victim 1,” with incidents alleged in her November 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs mirroring events detailed in the charging papers.
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