The legal feud between rapper Jay-Z and celebrity lawyer Tony Buzbee escalated Wednesday with the filing of yet another lawsuit.
The attorney’s Buzbee Law Firm filed a suit against Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, as well as lawyer Marcy Croft and law firm Quinn Emanuel, accusing all three of violating various Texas state laws by allegedly offering a former client money in exchange for suing Buzbee’s firm.
This suit, filed in Harris County, Texas, punctuates a growing dispute between Buzbee, who represents many of the accusers in the flurry of rape cases against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Jay-Z, who is accused in one such suit of assaulting a minor alongside Combs.
Marcy Croft works with Team Roc, Roc Nation’s philanthropic arm. Quinn Emanual’s firm is representing Jay-Z in both Buzbee’s original case against Combs and the rapper in New York and the countersuit filed by Jay-Z in Los Angeles court.
“Tony Buzbee has now conjured up fantastical allegations against me and my firm — well-known corruption fighters — in a desperate attempt to distract from his mounting legal woes. We look forward to addressing these false allegations and having them dismissed,” Marcy Croft shared in a statement with USA TODAY Wednesday.
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Roc Nation echoed that sentiment, sharing in their own statement to USA TODAY: “Tony Buzbee’s baloney lawsuit against Roc Nation is nothing but another sham. It’s a pathetic attempt to distract and deflect attention. This sideshow won’t change the ultimate outcome and true justice will be served soon.”
Buzbee announced the newest suit, brought on behalf of a former client of his firm, Wednesday with a post on Instagram. The filings allege that agents for the lawyers posed as employees of the state of Texas, “flashed fake badges” and offered the client up to $10,000 to sue the Buzbee Law Firm. The funding for the alleged “conspiracy” came from Roc Nation, the suit argues.
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The lawyer, known for taking on high-profile cases, offered as evidence an alleged transcript of a call between the defendants and Buzbee’s former client in which they offered to pay him.
“This illegal conduct has happened more than two dozen times to date and has resulted in two utterly frivolous cases against the firm,” Buzbee wrote in the post and in a statement shared with USA TODAY.
Buzbee was sued in November by an unnamed “high-profile” celebrity for “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him.” Jay-Z has since come forward as that celebrity.
“This conduct was specifically targeted at our firm so we would not pursue cases related to the Diddy litigation. LET ME BE CLEAR: we will not be bullied or intimidated,” he wrote. “The Defendants overstepped, got sloppy, and stupidly got caught in their illegal scheme on tape.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Quinn Emanuel for comment.
After being ensnared in the continuously growing legal minefield facing Combs, Jay-Z vigorously denied the accusations against him and took aim at Buzbee specifically. “I have no idea how you have come to be such a horrible human Mr. Buzbee,” the “Empire State of Mind” rapper wrote in a statement shared at the time, “but I promise you I have seen your kind many times over.”
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Going on the offensive, lawyers for Jay-Z sent a letter to the judge in the New York case last week accusing Buzbee and his associates of pressuring clients to include Combs in their accusations.
“We don’t pressure people nor do we need to. What we have done is reject potential cases from people we find to not be credible,” Buzbee shared in a statement with USA TODAY at the time.
Jay-Z is accused in a civil suit of taking turns with Combs in raping the aforementioned minor, who said she was 13 when the alleged assault took place, at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in September 2000.
Combs and Jay Z’s accuser has since come forward publicly, acknowledging discrepancies in her story but that the accusation stands. The alleged victim said her father picked her up from the party where she says she was assaulted, but he denied that claim. She also claimed she talked to a celebrity at the event, but the celebrity said she was not in New York at the time the party took place.
“You should never let what somebody else did ruin or run your life. I just hope I can give others the strength to come forward like I came forward,” the woman, now 38, told NBC News.
This weekend’s “investigative report proves this ‘attorney’ Buzbee filed a false complaint against me in the pursuit of money and fame. This incident didn’t happen and yet he filed it in court and doubled down in the press. True Justice is coming,” Jay-Z shared in a statement via representatives Saturday, adding that “this was over before it began” and “this 1-800 lawyer doesn’t realize it yet.”
When the sprawling case against Combs kicked off, Buzbee held a press conference in which he shared a 1-800 number for potential victims to contact him.
Combs is accused of sex trafficking and racketeering and faces several civil suits from individual alleged victims outlining a seeming pattern of abuse that dates back decades.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/online and receive confidential support.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Jay Stahl
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