Lawsuit
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Jay-Z was named in a civil lawsuit brought against Sean “Diddy” Combs and was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl while attending a music industry afterparty back in 2000. Jay-Z has since filed to have the lawsuit case dismissed, citing that the attorney representing Jane Doe in the matter is attempting a financial shakedown and is asking that the identity of Doe be revealed.
In a new report from Page Six, Jay-Z, 55, has filed documents in court that took aim at Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee and levies a claim of his own that the lawsuit was an attempt to force the rapper and entrepreneur to pay a large sum of cash to make it all go away.
“That campaign was cynical and calculated to force payment of an exorbitant sum of money—Defendant would have to pay X millions of dollars irrespective of the truth, or else,” a portion of the doc said, which was obtained by the outlet.
“When Defendant refused to pay and instead took measures to establish his innocence, this unnamed Plaintiff and her self-promoting counsel (whose name has been splashed across headlines and press conferences under auspices of representing her) went to extraordinary lengths to shut down fair defense,” the doc continues.
“These claims are not about justice for victims. Nor are they about giving victims of sexual violence a voice. Instead, they are merely the next chapter in Attorney [Tony] Buzbee’s sprawling extortion saga—a saga whose aim is base and measured in dollars,” the doc also adds.
Jay-Z’s side wants the judge in the matter to reveal the name of Jane Doe to the public, stating that the accuser’s legal team has not provided sufficient evidence to justify the anonymity.
Buzbee, Doe’s attorney, gave a statement to Page Six regarding the matter.
“Sending a basic litigation demand letter and then filing a lawsuit isn’t extortion or blackmail. That’s the legal practice.
Buzbee added that his side “won’t get bogged down in a silly sideshow that tries to make the lawyers the focus of what are very serious allegations brought by a courageous woman.”
In the court of public opinion, reactions to the lawsuit claims have grown legs, with some already announcing Jay-Z is guilty as charged before the matter has been heard. Others, such as 50 Cent, have taken to social media to take shots. Others are saying that as more details emerge, the truth will be revealed in an attempt to show grace.
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Jay-Z was named in a refiled civil lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Sunday (Dec. 8) with the complaint accusing the rapper and mogul of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2000. The complaint was originally filed against Diddy back in October of this year and was readjusted to include Jay-Z’s name in the most recent filing.
In an exclusive report from NBC News, the complaint, filmed by an unnamed accuser, claims that Jay-Z, real name Shawn Corey Carter, was involved in the rape of the girl known as Jane Doe in the complaint. The outlet, which has details about the lawsuit, shared the contents within.
Jane Doe accused Combs and Carter of assaulting her at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party event. The lawsuit was filed by Tony Buzbee of Texas in the Southern District of New York. The outlet adds that Carter’s attorney, Alex Spiro, and other media representatives have yet to comment on the claim. In addition, reps for Combs also decided against offering comments. It is the first lawsuit filed by Buzbee to include a celebrity of Jay-Z’s magnitude.
The outlet laid out the details of the lawsuit and we must warn that what is explained might be triggering for some so proceed with caution.
Jane Doe claims that in 2000 at the age of 13, she was raped at a house party in New York after the MTV VMAs. Doe says that a friend dropped her off at the VMAs, which was held at the Radio City Music Hall venue. Doe says she asked several limo drivers on the premises for access to the award show or parties.
One driver heeded her call and said that he worked for Combs and that she “fit” the profile of what “Diddy was looking for” and was invited to the after-party. The driver then allegedly picked up Doe and took her to a home in New York and was ordered to sign a nondisclosure agreement to gain entry to the party.
Doe says she was given a drink that made her drowsy and went into a room to rest. She then claims that Combs and Carter came into the room, stating that Carter removed her clothes and sexually assaulted her. Combs allegedly came into the room and also assaulted the girl as Jay-Z and an unnamed woman celebrity watched.
The Roc Nation account on X has posted a response from Carter stating that Buzbee’s lawsuit filing is nothing more than a shakedown. Read below.
pic.twitter.com/jl8sgOllCM
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) December 9, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Jane Doe is seeking unspecified damages.
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Source: Alex Kent / Getty
Rudy Giuliani had a meltdown in court after a federal judge declined to delay his trial in a hearing in New York City, claiming he has “no cash.”
Rudy Giuliani had a terrible day in federal court on Tuesday (Nov. 26), after U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman informed Giuliani that his upcoming trial would not be delayed so that he could attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025. That trial is still scheduled for Jan. 16, where the court will rule on whether Giuliani can keep his Florida condominium and several custom-manufactured New York Yankees World Series rings. They would be relinquished to satisfy a judgment against him for defaming two Black election workers from Georgia, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani’s frustration provoked him to rant loudly at Judge Liman, a clear example of the strain the former mayor of New York City is under.
The rant was sparked by Judge Liman, noting that Giuliani has missed several deadlines to turn over the bulk of his assets. He has surrendered a fraction of those assets, which include an array of luxury watches and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz convertible that Giuliani claims was owned by the famed actress Lauren Bacall. “The car without the keys and title is meaningless,” Judge Liman stated. “I have applied for the title,” Giuliani replied. “I haven’t gotten it yet. What am I supposed to do, make it up myself?” He raised his voice, adding: “I don’t have a car. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash.” He complained that he didn’t “have a penny” that was not tied up by Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss. Judge Liman told Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, that his client was not allowed to speak and that the court would take action on the next outburst.
The hour-long hearing began with lawyers who formerly represented Giuliani formally withdrawing from his case citing an undisclosed concern over “professional ethics.” Another point of contention came as Aaron Nathan, a lawyer representing Freeman and Moss described Giuliani’s compliance with the $148 million judgment as “lackadaisical at best, and intentionally obstructive at worst.” He pointed to the America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma, New York, where Giuliani’s assets are stored as an accomplice in hindering the transfer. “It’s punishment for being the one who revealed first Joe Biden’s 30-year criminality,” he insisted after the hearing, claiming the Trump-appointed Liman is a Democrat.
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Joe Budden has made a career out of dissecting music and Hip-Hop culture with his popular eponymously named podcast, and the latest episode found him aiming his sights at Drake. After the news went wide that Drake launched a pair of lawsuits against Universal Music Group, Joe Budden proceeded to heave heavy critique upon the Canadian superstar, which has social media reacting.
On episode 779 of The Joe Budden Podcast, Budden and his cohosts bumped into a conversation regarding Drake’s lawsuits against UMG, the label he’s currently signed to and accusing of boosting Kendrick Lamar’s scathing “Not Like Us” single. Since this episode exists on a Patreon subscription service, we’ve only seen clips that surfaced online, which we’ll share from X below.
Joe Budden telling the unfiltered truth about Aubrey Drake Graham. pic.twitter.com/K2hMLZFuII
— Busby 🏁 (@MrBusby4o8) November 27, 2024
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The Joe Budden Podcast cooking again sheesh
🦉 “was disrespecting someone’s dead mom” “ idc about his dead mom tell him send a beat”
( I wonder if this why metro booming got upset)
🦉 “is more scared of Not Like Us being played at the SuperBowl”
Kendrick Lamar GNX out now pic.twitter.com/GsQ7fU141K
— Whooping feet (@WhoopingFeet) November 27, 2024
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As the clips highlight, Budden believes the industry has conspired in some regard against Drake due to alleged shady dealings with the personal affairs of his foes up to the business side of things. Fans online are taking note of Budden’s jabs as he’s been known to be friendly with Drake over the years but fell out of favor with the entertainer after Budden was critical of his musical direction For All The Dogs.
On X, formerly Twitter, the JBTV community space and others are sharing their thoughts about Joe Budden using the pod to air out his grievances against Drake. We’ve got the reactions listed below.
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Marilyn Manson has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood and agreed to pay her $327,000 in legal fees, according to legal documents obtained by Billboard, officially ending a case that the shock rocker first lodged against his former girlfriend more than two and a half years ago.
Filed in March 2022, the lawsuit accused Wood of conspiring with another woman, Ashley Gore, to falsely portray Manson (real name Brian Warner) as a “rapist and abuser” in the public eye. Both women appeared in the 2022 documentary Phoenix Rising, in which Wood detailed her accusations of sexual abuse against the singer. The lawsuit claimed that both women “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse against Manson, and brazenly claim that it took 10 or more years to ‘realize’ their consensual relationships with Warner were supposedly abusive.”
But Manson’s lawsuit suffered a major blow in May 2023 after a judge largely sided with Wood in her move to have it thrown out by invoking California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which makes it easier for judges to dismiss cases that threaten free speech. In that ruling, the judge struck down much of Manson’s case after finding that the rocker had not shown he would ultimately be able to prove many of his accusations against Wood. Manson had appealed that decision this past August.
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“Marilyn Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — filed a lawsuit against Ms. Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career,” Wood’s lawyer Michael J. Kump said in a statement sent to Billboard. “But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed. As the trial court correctly found, Warner’s claims were meritless. Warner’s decision to finally abandon his lawsuit and pay Ms. Wood her full fee award of almost $327,000 only confirms as much.”
In his own statement, Manson’s attorney Howard King said, “After 4 years of fighting a battle where he was able to tell the truth, Brian is pleased to dismiss his still-pending claims and appeal in order to close the door on this chapter of his life.”
The public battle between Manson and Wood kicked off in February 2021, when Wood claimed in an Instagram post that Manson “started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years.” In addition to Wood’s accusations, Manson has been hit with multiple sexual misconduct lawsuits over the last several years from women including former assistant Ashley Walters, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco and two Jane Doe accusers.
The majority of these cases are no longer active. In May 2022, a judge dismissed Walters’ lawsuit, citing the statute of limitations. Manson subsequently settled with both Bianco and one of the Jane Doe accusers, while Smithline recanted her allegations and claimed that Wood and others had “manipulated” her into bringing them.
Manson has denied all of the allegations against him.
Guitar manufacturer Gibson has issued a cease-and-desist against the branding agency behind a line of guitars endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, alleging the design infringes the company’s trademarks, Billboard has confirmed. The cease-and-desist against 16 Creative alleges the guitar line infringes on its trademark for the “iconic Les Paul body shape,” a Gibson spokesperson tells […]
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Jonathan Majors earned a bittersweet legal victory after a conviction in 2023 upended the once-popular actor’s momentum and cost him the role of a lifetime. Grace Jabbari, the ex-girlfriend of Jonathan Majors, has now dropped her assault and defamation lawsuit against him which has fans on X wondering if Kang will make a comeback in the MCU.
Jonathan Majors, 35, was found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the 3rd degree and one charge of harassment as a violation. Majors was acquitted of a charge of assault and another charge of aggravated harassment. Grace Jabbari, 31, accused Majors of physical assault and abuse after an incident in March of 2023 found the former couple at odds. Several accounts of the allegedly violent exchange were revealed before Majors’ conviction with the courts eventually siding with Jabbari although some charges did not stick.
Now with Jabbari dropping the assault and defamation lawsuit, observers are wondering if the larger public owes Majors an apology and if the role of Kang The Conqueror within the Marvel Cinematic Universe should still be his. It should be noted that Majors’ conviction from the incident still stands and Jabbari has not publicly claimed that the acts connected to the case didn’t happen.
Majors is already signed up for new films, with a role in the upcoming thriller Merciless from director Martin Villeneuve. Majors will also appear in the 2025 film, Magazine Dreams.
Jonathan Majors has maintained his innocence regarding the assault allegations and says he wants to continue his work as an actor.
[h/t Deadline]
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Malcolm X, the civil rights leader who later transformed into a global activist, was assassinated in 1965 just as his messages for human rights began to resonate with the wider public. The family of Malcolm X has filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the United States government, alleging its involvement in his passing.
As reported late last week by ABC News, civil rights attorney Ben Crump was flanked by members of Malcolm X’s family and announced the $100 million lawsuit while addressing a media gathering in New York where the leader was gunned down.
According to Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), said that the family and their legal team have uncovered damning evidence that connects the NYPD and FBI worked in concert to kill her father.
“We fought primarily for our mother, who was here,” Ms. Shabazz said referencing the late Betty Shabazz while speaking at the site of the former Audubon Ballroom. “My mother was pregnant when she came here to see her husband speak, someone who she just admired totally and to witness this horrific assassination of her husband.”
Crump added in his statements to the press that the lawsuit targets an alleged scheme from the authorities to keep the truth of X’s death under wraps. In the lawsuit, a witness by the name of Mustafa Hassan claims that when he and others tried to stop the individuals who carried out the assassination, NYPD officers intervened to allegedly help the suspects escape. Hassan was reportedly never questioned by investigators on the scene despite him giving an account of the incident.
Further, the family’s legal team says it has two affidavits from a pair of X’s bodyguards who claim they were jailed by an undercover NYPD officer one week before the slaying was carried out and were kept from X’s side to guarantee the job would be done.
The FBI and NYPD have declined to comment on the lawsuit according to the outlet.
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An unnamed “celebrity” has filed a civil extortion lawsuit against Tony Buzbee, a Texas attorney who reps more than 100 of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ alleged abuse victims — claiming the lawyer is threatening to file a lawsuit containing “wildly false horrific allegations” if the anonymous bigwig doesn’t pay up.
In a lawsuit filed Monday (Nov. 18) in Los Angeles, lawyers for a “high-profile” public figure identified only as “John Doe” claim that Buzbee is “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him” by threatening to “unleash entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault.”
“This is textbook extortion,” writes the celebrity’s attorneys, who hail from the prominent law firm Quinn Emanuel. “Buzbee pretends to be speaking truth to power, but that is far from the truth.”
Buzbee allegedly contacted the man earlier this month with “vile” false claims: That he had “raped multiple minors, both male and female, who had been drugged at parties hosted by Combs.” If the celebrity did not agree to a “confidential mediation,” Buzbee allegedly warned he would “take a different course.”
“Plaintiff presently faces a gun to his head,” the lawsuit reads. “Either repeatedly pay an exorbitant sum of money … or else face the threat of an untold number of civil suits and financial and personal ruin.”
In a statement to Billboard on Monday, Buzbee said he and his firm “won’t allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers intimidate or silence sexual survivors” and warned that a lawsuit against the unnamed plaintiff was looming.
“It is obvious that the frivolous lawsuit filed against my firm is an aggressive attempt to intimidate or silence me and ultimately my clients,” Buzbee wrote. “That effort is a gross miscalculation. I am a US Marine. I won’t be silenced or intimidated. Neither will my clients. Since our professional efforts at resolution obviously have failed, we will instead disclose the demand letters we sent at the time we filed suit.”
Combs has faced a flood of abuse accusations over the past year, starting with civil lawsuits and followed by a bombshell 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 the indictment, Buzbee joined the fray by holding 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 a dozen such lawsuits, all on behalf of unnamed Doe plaintiffs.
At the time, Buzbee explicitly warned that he would name others: “We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors.” And later, in an interview with TMZ, he said several such celebrities had settled on private terms to remain anonymous.
In Monday’s complaint, the unnamed celebrity said those efforts represented a “shakedown” and a “cynical extortion scheme” — one in which Buzbee “capitalizes on the bravery of those victims who came forward” against Combs to win unearned settlements from “innocent celebrities, politicians, and business people.”
“Defendants devised a scheme to obtain payments through the use of coercive threats from anyone with any ties to Combs — no matter how remote,” lawyers for the unnamed plaintiff write. “Defendants claim to be investigating the facts, but the reality is they are finding deep pockets and trying to smear all of them with the same brush.”
The unusual episode — a mysterious celebrity plaintiff claiming they’re being extorted with baseless abuse allegations — echoes a similar incident last month involving Garth Brooks. In that case, Brooks filed an anonymous lawsuit as “John Doe” seeking a federal court order to block the publication of the allegations. But the accuser eventually filed their abuse lawsuit against Brooks in a separate court weeks later.
Megadeth and lead singer Dave Mustaine have agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve allegations that they still owed commissions to a long-time manager after he was “unceremoniously” fired and replaced by Mustaine’s son.
The deal will resolve claims in a lawsuit filed last year by Cory Brennan and his Five B Artist Management, which alleged that Mustaine was refusing to hand over more than $1 million in unpaid commissions after abruptly terminating Brennan in early 2023.
In a filing made public on Wednesday (Nov. 13), attorneys for Brennan alerted a Los Angeles judge that Mustaine and Megadeth had agreed to pay the manager and Five B a total of $1,400,006 to end the litigation over those accusations.
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The settlement will not end the dispute entirely. Mustaine countersued Brennan last year, claiming his tenure as manager had been “plagued with missteps” that caused serious harm, including damaging Mustaine’s hearing. Those claims were not resolved by the settlement and will continue to be litigated.
In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Brennan’s attorney, Howard King, said that while his client was “displeased at having to sue an artist,” he was “gratified” by the settlement payment.
“Dave Mustaine, who has a known history of firing advisors, terminated Five B Artist Management after 9 years of their having resurrected his failing career,” King said. “Ignoring the success Five B had helped Dave achieve, including a campaign to help him win his first Grammy, the release of two hit albums, and the elevation of his touring from small clubs back to arenas and amphitheaters, Dave simply refused to pay commissions owing and forced 5B to file a lawsuit.”
Mustaine’s attorney, Richard Busch, did not immediately return a request for comment on the settlement.
In a June 2023 lawsuit, Brennan alleged that Mustaine had sought him out in 2014 to “manage his career and get it back on track,” following an extended downturn in commercial and critical success in which the beloved thrash metal band “seemed to have lost their way.” Over the next nine years, Brennan said he had “worked tirelessly” for Mustaine, including “helping him with his personal struggles” and successfully re-establishing Megadeth as “one of the greatest metal bands of all time.”
But the lawsuit claimed that Mustaine abruptly fired Brennan in early 2023, leaving him owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid touring commissions and hundreds of thousands more in merchandise commissions.
“Despite this success and their long-term relationship, on April 28, 2023, Mustaine, through his lawyer, unexpectedly and unceremoniously terminated Plaintiffs, stating no reason for the termination,” the lawsuit alleged. “The decision was made to help send business to Mustaine’s son, who has been trying to build a career in artist management.”
Months later, Megadeth and Mustaine fired back with a countersuit of their own, claiming that Brennan had been fired due to “repeated management failures” that had “dealt serious blows to Megadeth’s reputation and even David Mustaine’s physical health.”
Mustaine’s lawyers claimed that both sides had always agreed that each would “go their separate ways” following any split between Brennan and the band — and the lawsuit was simply retaliation because the ex-manager was “upset” that his “mishandling” of the band’s business had finally “caught up with him.”
“The cross-defendants’ unfounded claims are nothing more than an attempt to capstone their years of mistreatment with extortionate demands for money not earned by cross-defendants nor owed by cross-plaintiffs,” Busch wrote in the complaint.
Since the initial accusations and counter-claims, the case had spent months in discovery — the process of exchanging evidence in a litigation. No rulings on the merits of the cases have yet been issued.
Following the settlement of Brennan’s claims, Mustaine’s accusations of wrongdoing against him — including breach of contract and negligence — will continue toward an eventual trial.