The legal war between Jay-Z and a lawyer Tony Buzzbee stepped up Wednesday (Dec. 18), with both a new lawsuit accusing the star of orchestrating a “shadow operative” conspiracy and a move warning a judge that Buzbee can destroy evidence of his own alleged misconduct.
The filings come less than two weeks after Buzbee filed a lawsuit accusing the star (real name Shawn Carter) of raping an unnamed 13-year-old girl in 2000 along with Sean “Diddy” Combs — a shocking allegation against one of the music industry's biggest names. powerful figures.
In Wednesday's new case, Buzbee accused Jay-Z's company (Roc Nation) and its lawyers (attorney Marcy Croftas well as the law firm Quinn Emanuel) to offer money to one of his former clients (Gerardo Garcia) to persuade him to file false lawsuits against his company. Buzbee claims the incident, allegedly caught on tape, is part of a larger illegal effort to derail his case against Jay-Z.
“The defendants conspired to obstruct justice by engaging undercover agents to illegally seek out more than two dozen current and former clients of the Buzbee Law Firm in order to induce those clients to file frivolous cases against [the firm],” Buzbee wrote in the new complaint, filed in a Houston court.
“This conduct specifically targeted our company, so we would not pursue cases related to Didi's lawsuit,” Buzbee said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “However, we will not be intimidated or intimidated. The defendants overstepped, sloppy and foolishly got caught in their illegal scheme on film.”
In a statement to Bulletin boarda Roc Nation spokesperson responded saying, “Tony Buzbee's baloney lawsuit against Roc Nation is just another scam. It's a pathetic attempt to distract and divert attention. This sideshow will not change the bottom line and true justice will be served soon.”
In her statement, Croft reacted similarly: “Tony Buzbee has now concocted imaginary allegations against me and my firm – known corruption fighters – in a desperate attempt to divert attention from his mounting legal woes. We look forward to addressing these false allegations and dispelling them.”
Rape allegations against Jay-Z have sparked a wider legal war between his team and Buzbee, which the superstar has called a “fraud”. Jay-Z secretly sued Buzbee for extortion last month, accusing him of concocting a “cynical” scheme to extract settlements from innocent celebrities by threatening to link them to Diddy. And Buzbee previously filed a lawsuit in Texas against Queen Emanuel over similar allegations of retaliation.
Separately on Wednesday, Jay-Z's lawyers formally asked the federal judge overseeing the rape lawsuit to dismiss him from the case, citing a bombshell NBC News interview on Friday (December 13) in which his accuser admitted inconsistencies and “mistakes” in her story and her father contradicted her story.
“The timing, location and occurrence of the events alleged in plaintiff's complaint are rendered impossible by these admissions,” Jay-Z's attorneys wrote. “Plaintiff's unsubstantiated allegations fall apart under scrutiny as the evidence—and the lack thereof—reveals glaring inconsistencies and glaring weaknesses in her story.”
The new motion once again blamed Buzbee for the problems, accusing him of not properly reviewing the allegations against Jay-Z before filing them in court. He cited his own quotes in the NBC story, in which he said the allegations had been vetted by another law firm.
In addition to seeking to have the case dismissed, Wednesday's filing warned that Buzbee can destroy evidence of such wrongdoing and sought a court order barring him from doing so.
“The fundamental inconsistencies in the Plaintiff's case revealed in the NBC interview, combined with Buzbee's chronic inability to follow the rules in this case and others, create a significant risk that Buzbee will destroy evidence damaging to the Plaintiff's case , including evidence of his own misconduct.” the star's lawyers write.
