{"id":22963,"date":"2025-03-26T23:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/jay-zs-extortion-claim-against-tony-buzbee-now-poised-to-survive\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:32:17","slug":"jay-zs-extortion-claim-against-tony-buzbee-now-poised-to-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/jay-zs-extortion-claim-against-tony-buzbee-now-poised-to-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay-Z’s Extortion Claim Against Tony Buzbee Now Poised to Survive"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tAfter a judge said last month that he was close to dismissing Jay-Z\u2019s extortion allegation<\/a> against Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, the same judge signaled Wednesday he had changed his mind and was inclined to let the Roc Nation founder proceed with the legal claim.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a hearing in Santa Monica, California, the Los Angeles County judge said he reconsidered his position based on stunning new evidence collected by private investigators and submitted by Jay-Z<\/a>\u2019s lawyers. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe new evidence revolves around a conversation the investigators had with the Jane Doe who claimed in a revised lawsuit filed last December<\/a> that Jay-Z raped her alongside Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs at an awards show afterparty when she was 13 years old. In the conversation recorded on Feb. 21 on the Jane Doe\u2019s front porch in Alabama, the woman allegedly said, \u201cIt was more Diddy, but Buzbee brought Jay-Z, into it.\u201d She appeared to tell the investigators that it was Buzbee who \u201cpushed\u201d her into publicly naming Jay-Z as one of her assailants.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf the evidence can be considered \u2013 and the court believes it can be considered for this motion \u2013 it supports not only the defamation cause of action but also the extortion cause of action,\u201d Judge Mark Epstein wrote in his tentative ruling issued Wednesday. \u201cFor if one accepts Doe\u2019s statements to the investigators at face value, then she at least inferentially did not authorize the settlement letter to be sent or even conclude that she was going to sue Carter at the time the [letter was] mailed. Without a present intent to bring a lawsuit, the litigation privilege will fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRolling Stone<\/em> previously obtained a portion of the alleged doorstep discussion<\/a> with the Jane Doe. In the snippet, one of the investigators specifically asked if Doe was saying that Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, was at the afterparty but \u201cdidn\u2019t have anything to do with the any sexual acts towards you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah,\u201d Doe replied. The other investigator then asked if it was Buzbee who suggested Jay-Z had a role in the alleged attack following the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. \u201cHe was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him, with Jay-Z,\u201d the woman replied.<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tBuzbee\u2019s lawyers fought the admissibility and relevance of the conversation at the hearing Wednesday, arguing the Jane Doe felt threatened and intimidated by the visit from the investigators, that the interview invaded her right to attorney-client privilege, that she didn\u2019t consent to any recording, and that Carter\u2019s camp was \u201ccherry-picking\u201d certain statements out of context. The judge said Alabama allows conversations to be secretly recorded, even though California, where the extortion and defamation lawsuit was filed, does not.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t love surreptitious recordings, but we don\u2019t export our laws to other jurisdictions,\u201d Judge Epstein said during the hearing. He then asked Carter\u2019s lawyers point-blank who hired the investigators. Carter\u2019s attorney Robert Schwartz said he wasn\u2019t exactly sure but after checking with his client, he confirmed someone working for Carter hired the pair without telling Carter. The judge said he was skeptical Carter didn\u2019t know but it was possible the staffer worked independently to give Carter \u201cplausible deniability.\u201d Either way, he said it wasn\u2019t a violation for Carter to approach the Jane Doe, though it would have been if his lawyers did so while knowing she was represented by Buzbee.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his new tentative order, Judge Epstein maintained his prior stance that much of Carter\u2019s defamation claim against Buzbee showed enough merit to clear the first hurdle set up by Buzbee\u2019s motion to strike. He then turned to the demand letter Buzbee sent to Carter last November seeking private mediation and a financial settlement ahead of an anticipated lawsuit. Carter says the letter amounted to extortion. Buzbee\u2019s lawyers argue it was protected under the litigation privilege, meaning it was allowed as part of a good-faith effort to resolve a civil dispute.<\/p>\n

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\n\tJudge Epstein reasoned that if Doe\u2019s statements, as supplied by Carter\u2019s camp, are accurate, they raise a triable issue of fact, meaning a jury might find that she did not authorize the letter sent weeks before Doe met and spoke with Buzbee for the first time. \u201cAnd without a client\u2019s authority to send the demand letter, the court is far from confident that the [letter did] not start to look more like extortion than an attempt to settle a civil suit,\u201d the judge wrote in his tentative.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his oral argument, Buzbee\u2019s lawyer Samuel Moniz said he disagreed with the court\u2019s analysis. \u201cThe litigation privilege is extremely broad, extremely powerful, and pretty much the only claim that it doesn\u2019t eliminate is one for malicious prosecution,\u201d Moniz, from the firm Sheppard Mullin, said. \u201cThere\u2019s direct evidence from multiple people who say [Jane Doe] authorized this. There\u2019s direct evidence she was referred to this firm to pursue claims against Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Epstein told Muniz, \u201cI take your point on this and will give it some additional thought.\u201d The judge declined to adopt his tentative at the end of the hour-long arguments and instead set a follow-up hearing for further argument on April 7.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court wants to emphasize that this is a difficult motion, and that the new evidence has thrown a monkey wrench into the court\u2019s reasoning,\u201d Judge Epstein wrote in his tentative. \u201cAnd further, it could well be that Buzbee prevails at trial, or even potentially on summary judgment, as new evidence comes to light and discovery gets underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Jay-Z\u00a0first sued Buzbee anonymously<\/a>\u00a0in November, he claimed the high-powered Houston attorney was \u201cshamelessly\u201c trying to extort him while representing dozens of plaintiffs with claims against indicted music mogul\u00a0Sean Combs<\/a>. Three weeks later, Buzbee filed the amended complaint naming Carter as the male celebrity who allegedly raped Doe alongside Combs when she was a minor.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarter immediately \u2014 and vehemently \u2014 denied Doe\u2019s allegations and confirmed he was the John Doe who filed the extortion lawsuit. The Jane Doe went on to voluntarily\u00a0dismiss her entire complaint against Carter and Combs with prejudice \u2014 meaning it can\u2019t be filed again \u2014 on Feb. 14<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0admitting there were inconsistencies in her story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince then, Carter has filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Doe<\/a> in Alabama, claiming she and Buzbee engaged\u00a0in an \u201cevil conspiracy\u201d to extort him with the \u201ccompletely fabricated\u201d and \u201cwildly horrific\u201d rape claim.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a sworn statement, Carter said that he considered Buzbee\u2019s demand letter an \u201cexistential threat.\u201d \u201cI felt that Mr. Buzbee was placing a gun to my head that I either bow to his demands or endure personal and financial ruin. His actions caused me mental anguish about the ticking time bomb and what it would do to me, my family, and my hard-earned reputation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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\n\tCombs, meanwhile, is currently charged with\u00a0sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he faces 15 years to life in prison. His criminal trial is set to begin May 5 in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs has been sued by dozens of plaintiffs alleging sexual misconduct. The music mogul, 55, denies any wrongdoing. \u201cNo matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won\u2019t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex-trafficked anyone \u2014 man or woman, adult or minor,\u201d his lawyers previously told\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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After a judge said last month that he was close to dismissing Jay-Z\u2019s extortion allegation against Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, the same judge signaled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}