Attorney Tony Buzbee could face a $25 million defamation suit filed by an attorney he accused of turning former clients against him during his legal brawl with Jay-Z.
Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee could yet face a $25 million defamation lawsuit filed by a Mississippi attorney he accused of soliciting his former clients into filing lawsuits against him. U.S. District Judge Vincent Brown in Galveston, Texas, has denied Buzbee’s motion to dismiss the case, meaning the prominent attorney and his firm must contend with the lawsuit filed by Marcy Croft, who represented Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation.
According to Judge Brown’s ruling, the court at this stage could “reasonably infer” that Buzbee made defamatory statements about Croft. Croft’s attorney, Gregg Costa, said his firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, looked forward to “holding the defendants accountable for the reputational damage they caused to a distinguished and honorable lawyer.”
It’s the latest move in an expansive legal battle that has now gone on for about two years. The matter stemmed from Buzbee’s case in Manhattan federal court against Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, on behalf of a Jane Doe who claimed Carter drugged and raped her alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was just 13. Both Carter and Combs denied the allegations, and the anonymous plaintiff later withdrew her claims.
But that case led to litigation filed against Buzbee by Carter in California, as well as a case Buzbee then brought against Roc Nation’s attorney Croft, alleging that she used agents to solicit former Buzbee clients to bring claims against him. Both of those cases were dismissed.
Croft’s case cites social media posts by Buzbee that claim illegal client solicitation as part of a “coordinated campaign to falsely accuse a well-respected attorney of criminal conduct.” The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $25 million in damages.
Meanwhile, Carter also sued Buzbee for defamation in New York federal court after Buzbee’s anonymous client dropped her lawsuit against the rapper and music mogul last year. Carter claims Buzbee pursued the case despite knowing the allegations to be false in the hopes of securing a payout. Buzbee alleged that Carter was using the court system to harass both the alleged victim and her attorneys.
Since then, Buzbee’s former client not only recanted her claims of rape against Carter but said she had never even met him. She said that while she still asserts that she was sexually assaulted, she did not actually know if the perpetrator was Carter and did not know that Buzbee was going to file a lawsuit on her behalf.
