Lawyers for Jay-Z and Tony Buzbee traded scathing barbs in a California courtroom Tuesday as a judge said he likely won’t rule on a key dismissal motion in the legal war until he hears the recording of Jay-Z’s rape accuser allegedly claiming Buzbee “pushed” her to make a false claim for himself.
“I was actually thinking of asking to hear the audio,” Los Angeles County Judge Mark Epstein said during the tense afternoon hearing. “It might be that that sheds light on things,” he added. After Jay-Z’s lawyer accused Buzbee of engaging in an “amoral” criminal conspiracy, and Buzbee’s lawyer accused Jay-Z of “abusive” tactics, the judge ended the three-hour hearing by saying he would let the parties know soon if he wanted a copy of the disputed recording submitted under seal.
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is suing Buzbee for extortion and defamation. He claims the high-profile Houston attorney knew he was peddling lies when he filed a lawsuit accusing Carter of being the male celebrity who raped a 13-year-old girl alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs at a New York party 25 years ago. Carter claims Buzbee sent him a demand letter in early November to squeeze him for money. He claims that weeks later, Buzbee named him as a co-defendant in the Jane Doe’s lawsuit against Combs because he refused to pay up in a secret settlement.
Buzbee has denied any wrongdoing and is seeking to dismiss Carter’s lawsuit. He claims the Jane Doe authorized him to send the demand letter and had a protected right to request a private mediation before filing her rape claim, which she has since voluntarily withdrawn. Buzbee claims a recording of Jane Doe made Feb. 21 by two private investigators working on behalf of Carter should now be off-limits in the mogul’s case because Doe, according to him, was ambushed, intimidated and interviewed on her front porch without her attorneys present. Carter’s lawyer said Tuesday that the interview was legal.
“We have presented evidence that Mr. Buzbee and his cohorts and co-conspirators engaged in seriously amoral conduct toward Mr. Carter,” Carter’s lawyer Robert Schwartz argued as he sought to overcome Buzbee’s dismissal motion and further question the Jane Doe. Schwartz claimed Buzbee engaged in extortion by placing Carter “in fear” that if he didn’t open his wallet, he risked “destroying his reputation, destroying his career. That if he wouldn’t pay something of substance, [he would be] accused of having raped a 13-year-old girl.”
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“I cannot imagine how much more evidence [Carter] could ever present to support his claims at this stage of the case without discovery. We have evidence of two people in a conspiracy, likely a criminal conspiracy. I’m not going to apologize for using the word ‘criminal,’” Schwartz said. He claimed Buzbee and the Jane Doe were “involved in a criminal conspiracy to extort money from Mr. Carter, and one of them relays to somebody else what they discussed.” He said the audio recording of Jane Doe was “Doe telling us what Buzbee said in December, at the acme of that conspiracy, while the conspiracy was in effect to shake down Mr. Carter.”
When it was his turn to speak, Buzbee’s lawyer Samuel Moniz said the Texas lawyer did nothing wrong. “The allegations here against Carter are not inherently improbable. Carter was a known associate of Diddy’s,” he said. “There’s clearly a sufficient basis for an attorney to file a lawsuit.” He called Carter’s extortion and defamation complaint a “classic” intimidation lawsuit.
“This is a well-funded powerful figure who is trying to punish lawyers for doing what lawyers do,” Moniz argued. “Mr. Carter is obviously really mad and determined to use his resources to send a message to lawyers and plaintiffs everywhere. Any fair interpretation of this case is that this is an attack on the right to free speech and the right to free petition. This is an abusive case that deserves to be dismissed.”
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During the lengthy hearing in a courtroom in Santa Monica, Judge Epstein asked the lawyers to weigh in on any parallels to billionaire Jeff Bezos’ civil court victory over the defamation lawsuit that was filed against him by Michael Sanchez, the estranged brother of Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez. In that case, Sanchez claimed he was falsely accused of being the source of nude images of Bezos leaked to a tabloid. Bezos claimed he heard Sanchez was the source of the photos from media reporters. The courts ruled that the reporters’ statements recounted in Bezos’ sworn declaration were inadmissible hearsay.
On Tuesday, Carter’s lawyers said the Sanchez case was very different. Schwartz argued that the recording of Jane Doe and the sworn declarations from the private investigators who spoke to the woman were much stronger evidence than what Bezos offered in his personal declaration.
Judge Epstein ended the hearing without a ruling on Buzbee’s motion. He said he would let the parties know soon if he wanted to hear the recording himself under a protective order.
Carter first sued Buzbee under a pseudonym back in November. He had just received the demand letter from Buzbee’s law firm that accused him of raping the Jane Doe. The Jane Doe already had sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in October, alleging Combs raped her alongside an unidentified male celebrity at an afterparty for the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. According to the demand letter sent by Buzbee, the Jane Doe, now a woman, was seeking a confidential mediation before filing an amended complaint naming Carter. The letter told Carter that the Jane Doe was seeking “something of substance,” and if he did not agree to negotiate, she would “take a different course.”
When Carter responded by proactively suing Buzbee for defamation and extortion, Buzbee called the lawsuit “frivolous” and an attempt to “intimidate or silence” him and his client. A few weeks later, he filed the amended complaint that identified Carter as the male celebrity. Carter responded by calling the lawsuit “blackmail” and branding Buzbee a “fraud.” He vowed to clear his name.
Tuesday marked the third hearing on Buzbee’s motion to strike Carter’s lawsuit. Back in February, the judge hinted the defamation claim would survive but the extortion claim appeared destined for dismissal. At a follow-up hearing in March, the judge said the new evidence regarding the recorded conversation caused him to reconsider the extortion cause of action.
Rolling Stone previously obtained a portion of the alleged doorstep discussion with the Jane Doe. In the snippet, one of the investigators specifically asked if Doe was saying that Carter was at the afterparty but “didn’t have anything to do with the any sexual acts towards you.”
“Yeah,” Doe replied. The other investigator then asked if it was Buzbee who suggested Carter had a role in the alleged attack following the VMAs. “He was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him, with Jay-Z,” the woman replied.
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Carter filed a separate defamation lawsuit against the Jane Doe in Alabama. He added Buzbee to a malicious prosecution cause of action in that complaint. On Monday, Buzbee sought to dismiss that action as well.
“Instead of accepting Doe’s invitation to confidentially discuss a settlement of her claims, Mr. Carter chose scorched-earth public harassment and litigation,” Buzbee’s new and pending motion in the Alabama case argues. “This case, an attempt by Mr. Carter to punish his accuser and silence potential accusers, as well as discourage any attorney who may represent such victims, is precisely the type of retaliatory and bad-faith litigation that courts across the country disfavor.”
