Jay-Z Lawyers Say Accuser’s Attorney Pressured Potential Client to Falsely Link Her Case to Diddy

Attorneys for Jay-Z are claiming in new court filings that Tony Buzbee – the attorney behind a bombshell lawsuit accusing the superstar of raping a 13-year-old girl alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs – pressured a different alleged sex trafficking victim to falsely tie her case to Combs.

In court papers filed Tuesday, lawyers for Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) from the law firm Quinn Emanuel tell a federal judge they were approached on Monday by an unnamed woman who had “unsolicited” info to share about Buzbee’s firm.

The woman allegedly told Quinn Emanuel that after she contacted Buzbee’s firm in October about an unrelated celebrity sex abuse case, she was “pressed for a connection to Mr. Combs.” She also allegedly felt “directed and coached by Mr. Buzbee’s firm” to include “false” claims, including that she had been drugged and physically assaulted: “She felt forced to lie.”

“When the woman made clear she was unwilling to adapt to the narrative Mr. Buzbee’s firm laid out and wanted only to speak her truth, she was dropped as a client,” writes Mari Henderson, an attorney at Quinn who says she spoke to the alleged victim, in a sworn declaration. “This woman shared this information because she felt the conduct by Mr. Buzbee’s firm — specifically, to encourage lies — discredits those who are legitimate victims.”

The new filings did not reveal the woman’s name. Though the Quinn Emanuel attorneys say the woman disclosed her name to the firm, they says she currently “wishes to remain unnamed at this time for fear of retaliation by the Buzbee firm.”

In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday, Buzbee called the new accusations “ridiculous” and said the firm was pursuing “hundreds of cases” against people other than Combs. Though he said he could not comment on the specific case without the woman’s name, he strongly denied the allegations.

“We get a lot of calls from people who believe they are aggrieved but we just can’t help,” Buzbee said. “We certainly don’t need to ‘pressure’ anyone to pursue a case. We have plenty of cases. What we won’t do is pursue a case we perceive to be weak or insupportable.”

The new filings are the latest salvo from Jay-Z’s legal team in response to a bombshell lawsuit, filed by Buzbee’s firm late on Sunday, that alleges the rapper joined Combs in drugging and assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2000 during an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards.

Weeks ago, Jay-Z filed a preemptive lawsuit against Buzbee, accusing him of extortion over his threats to sue over “wildly false” claims. Then on Monday, they filed a scathing response to the new rape lawsuit, denying the allegations as “patently false” and arguing they were part of a “scheme” by Buzbee to extract settlements from innocent celebrities by falsely tying them to Diddy.

Buzbee has denied all such allegations, calling them a “coordinated and desperate effort” to avoid his client’s accusations: “We will not be bullied or intimidated by these shenanigans. And our clients won’t be silenced.” Buzbee has also filed his own lawsuit in Texas against Quinn Emanuel, accusing the firm of seeking to “intimidate” him and asking for a restraining order blocking their investigation; that request was denied by a Houston judge on Friday.

Over the past year, Combs has faced a flood of abuse accusations — starting with civil lawsuits and followed by a sweeping federal indictment in September, in which prosecutors allege he ran a sprawling criminal operation for years aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.”

Weeks after Combs was arrested, Buzbee held a press conference in which he claimed to represent 120 individuals who had been victimized by Combs and threatened a flood of litigation. He has since filed more than 20 such civil lawsuits, all on behalf of unnamed Does.

In an updated complaint on Sunday, Buzbee added Jay-Z to one of those lawsuits. Calling the rapper a “longtime friend and collaborator” of Diddy, the case alleges that the victim was driven to the party and forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being given a drink that made her feel “woozy” and “lightheaded.” When she went to a bedroom to lie down, the lawsuit claims, she was assaulted by the two stars while an unnamed female celebrity looked on.

In Tuesday’s new filing, Jay-Z’s attorneys they say they were contacted on Monday by a Texas woman who had submitted a claim to Buzbee’s firm after seeing his October press conference. Though her allegations involved sex trafficking by different celebrities who were “entirely unrelated” to Combs or Carter, she allegedly told Quinn Emanuel that she felt pressured to tie them to Combs.

“After detailing her experiences to an attorney at Mr. Buzbee’s firm, he pressed for a connection to Mr. Combs, asking ‘at what point did you meet Diddy,’ even though she made clear that her case was unrelated to Mr. Combs,” writes Henderson in the affidavit, relaying her phone call with the alleged victim.

In addition to claiming she was press to link her case to Combs, the new filing says the woman also claimed Buzbee’s firm pressured her to pursue the claims anonymously as a “Jane Doe,” and to bring them as a civil lawsuit seeking damages rather than by contacting law enforcement over potential criminal charges.

In technical terms, the new filings came as added support for Monday’s initial response from Jay-Z’s team. In that motion, his attorneys had asked the judge to force his accuser to litigate the lawsuit under her real name, arguing it was necessary to mount a thorough defense of her claims.

“This information, which came to Quinn Emanuel unsolicited, is further evidence in support of Mr. Carter’s right to thoroughly investigate, test, and respond to the spurious allegations that have been leveled against him,” writes Jay-Z’s lead attorney Alex Spiro in Tuesday’s filings.