{"id":109356,"date":"2025-02-27T00:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T08:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/tony-buzbee-still-has-to-deal-with-jay-zs-defamation-countersuit\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T00:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T08:56:13","slug":"tony-buzbee-still-has-to-deal-with-jay-zs-defamation-countersuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/27\/tony-buzbee-still-has-to-deal-with-jay-zs-defamation-countersuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Buzbee Still Has To Deal With Jay-Z\u2019s Defamation Countersuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Tony Buzbee withdrew an unknown woman\u2019s sexual assault lawsuit against Jay-Z two weeks ago<\/a>, the fog around Jay-Z\u2019s name began to clear up. Can\u2019t say the same for Buzbee though \u2014 accusing famous and wealthy people isn\u2019t without consequence. Not only did it cost him being able to practice in New York\u2019s Southern district<\/a>, Jay-Z countersued Buzbee, accusing him of defamation and extortion. While Buzbee is still in hot water, a judge recently decided to turn the temperature down for him a little. Law360<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

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A California state judge said Tuesday that he\u2019s inclined to toss Shawn \u201cJay-Z\u201d Carter\u2019s extortion claims against personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee and some, but not all, of the rapper\u2019s defamation allegations stemming from a now-abandoned rape lawsuit.
\u2026
Judge Epstein\u2019s tentative ruling would strike the extortion claim under California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, which blocks frivolous lawsuits that seek to limit free speech. The judge said Buzbee\u2019s demand letter is clearly protected litigation activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelling silence for money in the civil context is not extortion,\u201d the tentative ruling said. \u201cIt is a settlement with a non-disclosure element.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The protected status of some of the claims is still up for grabs. For example, Jay-Z could still<\/em> sue Buzbee for defamation, but it would be difficult to prove that Buzbee knew that what he was saying was untruthful. Given that Buzbee\u2019s team ran a background check on and did several interviews with the anonymous woman who eventually dropped the suit against Jay-Z and Diddy, it does look like they did their due diligence of asking questions and sussing out the strength of the case before making the allegations public. Either way, it\u2019s looking to be a hard knock life for Buzbee \u2014 legally speaking \u2014 in the months to come.<\/p>\n

Jay-Z\u2019s Claims Against Buzbee May Get Trimmed, Judge Says<\/a> [Law360]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Jay-Z Caught Up In Diddy Freakoff Fallout<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Tony Buzbee Still Has To Deal With Jay-Z\u2019s Defamation Countersuit<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Tony Buzbee withdrew an unknown woman\u2019s sexual assault lawsuit against Jay-Z two weeks ago<\/a>, the fog around Jay-Z\u2019s name began to clear up. Can\u2019t say the same for Buzbee though \u2014 accusing famous and wealthy people isn\u2019t without consequence. Not only did it cost him being able to practice in New York\u2019s Southern district<\/a>, Jay-Z countersued Buzbee, accusing him of defamation and extortion. While Buzbee is still in hot water, a judge recently decided to turn the temperature down for him a little. Law360<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

A California state judge said Tuesday that he\u2019s inclined to toss Shawn \u201cJay-Z\u201d Carter\u2019s extortion claims against personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee and some, but not all, of the rapper\u2019s defamation allegations stemming from a now-abandoned rape lawsuit.
\u2026
Judge Epstein\u2019s tentative ruling would strike the extortion claim under California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, which blocks frivolous lawsuits that seek to limit free speech. The judge said Buzbee\u2019s demand letter is clearly protected litigation activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelling silence for money in the civil context is not extortion,\u201d the tentative ruling said. \u201cIt is a settlement with a non-disclosure element.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The protected status of some of the claims is still up for grabs. For example, Jay-Z could still<\/em> sue Buzbee for defamation, but it would be difficult to prove that Buzbee knew that what he was saying was untruthful. Given that Buzbee\u2019s team ran a background check on and did several interviews with the anonymous woman who eventually dropped the suit against Jay-Z and Diddy, it does look like they did their due diligence of asking questions and sussing out the strength of the case before making the allegations public. Either way, it\u2019s looking to be a hard knock life for Buzbee \u2014 legally speaking \u2014 in the months to come.<\/p>\n

Jay-Z\u2019s Claims Against Buzbee May Get Trimmed, Judge Says<\/a> [Law360]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Jay-Z Caught Up In Diddy Freakoff Fallout<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images) After Tony Buzbee withdrew an unknown woman\u2019s sexual assault lawsuit against Jay-Z two weeks ago, the fog around Jay-Z\u2019s name began to clear up. Can\u2019t say the same for Buzbee though \u2014 accusing famous and wealthy people isn\u2019t without consequence. Not only did it cost him being able to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Williams-150x150-idkVNZ.jpeg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}