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A federal judge has dismissed civil racketeering accusations and other claims filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs by former collaborator Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, though he also allowed parts of the music producer’s sexual abuse lawsuit to move forward.
In a decision issued Monday, Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled that Jones could not sue Diddy and others under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – the federal “RICO” law often used against the Mafia and the same statute prosecutors are citing in their criminal case against Combs.
The judge said Jones hadn’t shown that the alleged illegal “enterprise” operated by Diddy – the kind of illicit operation outlawed by RICO – had directly caused the star to renege on paying Jones for his work Combs’ Love Album.
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“The court cannot identify any such causal link,” Oetken wrote. “Defendants’ alleged sex, drug, and gun trafficking activities — the vast majority of the predicate acts pleaded in the operative complaint — did not foreseeably or naturally preclude defendants from honoring their recording contract with Jones.”
Monday’s ruling dismissed the RICO charge against Combs, his chief of staff Kristina Khorram and his businesses. The judge also dismissed Jones’ breach of contract claim and several claims emotional distress, finding them legally deficient.
But Oetken allowed several other key accusations to proceed, including sex trafficking, sexual assault and the claim that Combs is liable for an alleged assault perpetrated by others at his house. Those claims will now proceed into more litigation and toward an eventual trial.
Reps for the defendants and an attorney for Jones did not immediately return a request for comment. Combs has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing; Khorram denied the accusations to CNN last week, saying she “never condoned or aided and abetted the sexual assault of anyone.”
Jones sued Combs in March 2024, accusing the rapper of assaulting him while he was working as a producer on the Love Album. But the case went far beyond that, also leveling sweeping allegations about a vast RICO conspiracy involving numerous others, including not just Khorram but also Universal Music Group and CEO Lucian Grainge.
After UMG and Grainge said they would seek penalties over those “recklessly false” allegations, Jones’ attorney Tyrone Blackburn conceded that there had been “no legal basis” for filing them and asked to have them “withdrawn immediately.”
In Monday’s decision, Oetken sharply criticized Blackburn, saying he found the lawyer’s conduct in the case “unsettling.” He noted that court filings had been filled with “insults, misstatements, and exaggerations,” and said Blackburn had leveled “schoolyard taunts” at opposing lawyers.
In one incident, the judge said Blackburn had referenced the criminal case before saying Combs and his companies were “presumed guilty of being a RICO criminal organization” – an obvious inversion of the bedrock “innocent until proven guilty” standard at the heart of American criminal law.
“That any licensed member of the bar would espouse such an absurd understanding of the law is not just disturbing, but shocking,” the judge wrote Monday. “While the court will not hold Blackburn’s antics against Jones at this point, it warns Blackburn that further misconduct may lead to sanctions or to referral for discipline.”
Jones’ lawsuit is just one of dozens filed against Combs over the past year accusing him of serious sexual abuse and other wrongdoing. He’s also facing a criminal trial in May on federal RICO and sex trafficking charges; if convicted, he’s looking at a potential life prison sentence.
Forest Hills Stadium in Queens says it’s planning to move ahead with its 2025 concert season, amid reports that the New York Police Department (NYPD) has revoked the venue’s permits due to an ongoing conflict over noise complaints between the stadium and its residential neighbors.
“Forest Hills Stadium is moving forward with our 2025 concert schedule as planned and our permitting timeline is on its standard schedule,” reads a statement from the New York venue that was posted to social media on Sunday (May 23). “As happens every season, the vocal NIMBY minority of Forest Hills Gardens are attempting to roadblock yet another enjoyable season of music.”
The statement follows a report from the New York Post published Sunday that claimed the stadium — which has long been plagued by noise complaints from neighbors and in 2023 was hit by a lawsuit from the local homeowners association, the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC), seeking to shut down its summer concert program — had its sound amplification permits revoked by the NYPD last week due to an impasse in the conflict between the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club, where the stadium is located. According to the article, the FHGC announced it would no longer grant the NYPD permission to close the streets around the stadium, which the FHGC privately owns, leaving the NYPD with no choice but to revoke the sound permits.
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Billboard has confirmed that the FHGC has refused to grant the NYPD permission to close the streets bordering the stadium for its upcoming summer concert season, essentially making it impossible for the department to do its job.
“This is a disagreement between the Forest Hills Garden Corporation (FHGC) and the West Side Tennis Club,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement provided to Billboard. “We understand that many people enjoy these concerts every summer, but we must be able to take appropriate action to keep people safe. We trust that the FHGC and the West Side Tennis Club will be able to reach an appropriate compromise.”
Despite the standoff, the venue says it still intends to move forward with the upcoming concert season that would include performances from Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes, Tyler Childers and two nights of Phish.
In October 2024, a year after the FHGC filed its lawsuit, a judge dismissed five of the seven claims brought by the homeowners association, including claims that the West Side Tennis Club was in violation of its contract with the neighborhood and that it had unjustly profited from the stadium’s growing success. The ruling left only FHGC’s public and private nuisance claims intact, though the judge in the case, Joseph J. Esposito, did not find in FHGC’s favor on the merits of the nuisance claims. He merely held that they had stated a claim sufficient to survive the motion to dismiss, which they must now prove through discovery.
Live Nation has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company failed to warn investors about the kind of anticompetitive behavior that ultimately led to the Justice Department’s sweeping antitrust case.
In a filing Friday (March 21) in California federal court, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the deal with Live Nation would provide a “fair, reasonable, and adequate result” for thousands of investors who could be covered by the settlement. Live Nation continues to deny any wrongdoing, according to the court filings.
The case, filed in August 2023 as a proposed class action, claimed that Live Nation had failed to disclose to investors that it had engaged in anticompetitive conduct that was “likely to incur regulatory scrutiny and face fines, penalties, and reputational harm.”
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“Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and omissions of material fact about the company’s compliance with antitrust laws, its cooperation with governmental investigations, and the regulatory risks it was currently facing,” attorneys for the investors wrote.
As the government’s antitrust investigation was slowly revealed in the press — and then the blockbuster case was finally filed in May — Live Nation’s share price dropped, allegedly causing investors to face “significant” losses.
“The gradual revelation of the truth about the company’s anticompetitive conduct in violation of antitrust laws, refusal to fully cooperate with investigators, and undisclosed risks of regulatory action caused precipitous declines in the market value of the company’s stock,” attorneys for the investors wrote.
The DOJ and dozens of states filed their case in May, with the aim of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over accusations that they form an illegal monopoly in the live music industry. The case, which remains pending, accuses the company of a wide range of wrongdoing, including coercing artists into using the company’s promotion services and retaliating against venues that opted not to use Ticketmaster.
According to the lawsuit filed by the investors, Live Nation’s stock dropped $7.92 per share, or 7.8 percent, when the feds filed their case. Even before the lawsuit was formally filed, media reports about the investigation — including that Live Nation had “stonewalled” a Senate probe — had caused similar decreases in price.
According to settlement papers submitted on Friday, experts for the investors estimated that a best-case scenario might net them a whopping $743 million in damages at the end of the lawsuit. But their lawyers said that continuing to litigate the case also posed “significant” downside risk.
“The settlement provides a favorable, immediate and guaranteed recovery and eliminates the risk, delay, and expense of continued litigation,” plaintiff’s lawyers wrote. “While a greater recovery might be a theoretical possibility, evaluating the benefits of settlement must be tempered by recognizing that any compromise involves concessions on the part of all parties.”
Under the terms of the deal, the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs will be able to seek as much as 33 percent of the settlement, meaning up to $6.6 million. The two named plaintiffs, shareholders Brian Donley and Gene Gress, will get an extra $5,000 each.
A spokeswoman for Live Nation and an attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately return requests for comment on the settlement.
Showtime has won a ruling dismissing a lawsuit that claimed George & Tammy – a television series about country music legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette – unfairly turned her late husband into “the villain.”
The case, filed last year, alleged that Showtime’s series conveyed a “negative and disparaging portrayal” of the late George Richey, a songwriter and producer to whom Wynette was married for decades after her split from Jones.
But in a decision Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Richey’s widow (Sheila Slaughter Richey) lacked the grounds to file the case. The show might have been “unflattering” to him, the judge said, but it did not meet the legal requirements for her to sue Showtime for “unjust enrichment.”
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“Normally, a plaintiff who cries unjust enrichment must have actually enriched somebody,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote.
In his ruling, the judge said Sheila’s dispute was really with Wynette’s daughter, Georgette Jones, who had licensed her memoir to Showtime as the basis for the series. But he suggested she had instead sued the network because of the potential for a larger judgment.
“Sheila could have sued Georgette for breaking their agreement,” Bibas wrote. “But George & Tammy had been a hit, and Showtime had presumably profited handsomely from Georgette’s breach. So instead of going after Georgette for whatever damages her breach caused, Sheila set out for bigger game.”
Released in December 2022, George & Tammy was well-received by critics — particularly Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain’s respective portrayals of Jones and Wynette. Both were later nominated for Emmy Awards for their performances.
Sheila filed her case in January 2024, claiming the show had depicted Richey as a “devious husband” who engaged in physical abuse, facilitated Wynette’s drug addiction, and committed “financial and managerial manipulation” of the late country icon.
Accusations about a harmful depiction of a real-world person would typically be filed as a defamation lawsuit, but Sheila didn’t sue Showtime for defamation. And that’s likely because she couldn’t: Under U.S. law, defamation cases can only be filed by living people, not on behalf of the deceased.
Instead, Sheila claimed the show indirectly violated a 2019 legal settlement in which Georgette promised to not make disparaging statements about Richey. Since George & Tammy was based on Georgette’s 2011 memoir about her parents, the lawsuit alleged that Showtime had been unjustly enriched by Georgette’s decision to violate her agreement with Sheila.
In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Bibas rejected that legal workaround. He ruled that Sheila had simply not met the strict requirements to sue the networek for unjust enrichment — saying that Showtime might have profited from the show, but not at Sheila’s expense.
“The crux of Sheila’s claim is that Georgette wronged her by breaching the non-disparagement agreement and Showtime profited from that wrong,” the judge wrote. “But that is not enough for unjust enrichment. Instead, a plaintiff must usually allege that she is the one who enriched the defendant.”
Sheila didn’t hand over any money to the network, Bibas said, or perform any uncompensated services. And he stressed that Showtime had also not violated any of her intellectual property rights, since she did not “own the story that Showtime used.”
“The network’s right to turn George and Tammy’s story into a TV show came from the First Amendment and from buying the rights to dramatize Georgette’s book,” the judge wrote. “So Showtime did not exploit Sheila’s property rights by making the series.”
Though he rejected the current lawsuit, the judge gave Sheila a chance to refile an updated version next month, suggesting that additional evidence might help show that the network facilitated Georgette’s decision to breach her agreement. He gave her until April 18 to file the new complaint against Showtime.
Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday.
Dallas rapper Yella Beezy has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the shooting death of fellow rapper Mo3 on a busy interstate in 2020, according to court records.
Yella Beezy, 33, whose real name is Markies Conway, was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on Tuesday (March 18) on a charge of capital murder while remuneration. The indictment accuses Conway of hiring a man named Kewon White to murder Mo3, whose real name was Melvin Noble.
The indictment did not provide information on why authorities believe Conway hired White to shoot Noble, who also lived in Dallas.
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Court records did not list an attorney who could speak on behalf of Conway. Calls and emails to representatives for Conway were not immediately returned.
In a Facebook post after Conway’s arrest, Noble’s mother, Nichole Williams Noble wrote, “Justice for my baby!!!!”
The 28-year-old Noble was driving on Interstate 35 in south Dallas on Nov. 11, 2020, when authorities allege White drove up next to him and got out of his vehicle with a gun in his hand. Noble got out of his vehicle and began running south on the freeway as White shot at him, authorities said. Noble and a bystander who was inside a car were shot by White, police said. The bystander survived but Noble died at a hospital.
White and another man, Devin Brown, 32, were later indicted in Noble’s death. Their cases related to Noble’s death remain pending. White, 26, was sentenced in 2022 in a separate case to nearly nine years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Conway is best known for his 2017 single, “That’s On Me” and the 2019 song “Bacc At It Again” with Quavo and Gucci Mane.
In October 2018, Conway survived being shot while driving on a tollway in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville when someone pulled up next to him and opened fire, hitting him three times.
Noble had more than 800,000 followers on his Instagram page and was best known for a 2019 remix of the song “Errybody,” with Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rapper Boosie Badazz.
Jason Derulo must face a jury trial over allegations that he improperly failed to credit or pay a co-writer of his chart-topping viral TikTok song “Savage Love,” a federal judge says.
Producer Matthew Spatola sued the singer in 2023, claiming he had been unfairly cut out of the credits and royalties after he made important contributions to Derulo’s hit song, which spent a week atop the Hot 100 in 2020.
Derulo had pushed to have the case dismissed, arguing that Spatola wasn’t entitled to a stake in the copyright just because he was present for a few studio sessions. But in a ruling Thursday, Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said that question would need to be decided by a jury of his peers.
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“While defendants may have established by undisputed evidence that Derulo controlled the sessions, there are genuine disputes of material fact regarding whether [Spatola] is a joint author,” the judge wrote. “It is for the jury to decide how to weigh the factors.”
The ruling was hardly a slam dunk victory for Spatola, who played guitar during two of the nine sessions that led to “Savage Love.” Judge Fitzgerald repeatedly noted that it was Derulo, not Spatola, who was ultimately in charge of the creative choices behind the song.
“The uncontroverted evidence is that plaintiff made certain contributions—perhaps very important contributions—but that ultimately, Derulo accepted them or rejected them as he saw fit, and plaintiff did not have the same standing,” the judge wrote.
But the judge said creative control was only one part of the legal analysis, and that jurors could potentially by swayed by other factors – like screenshots of an Instagram conversation in which Derulo used the “prayer hands emoji” after Spatola posted about his work on the song.
“A reasonable jury could find that in this post, plaintiff publicly held himself out as a producer of Savage Love and that, instead of disputing the characterization publicly or privately, Derulo let the characterization stand,” the judge said. “Of course, a jury may also find that this is not strong evidence.”
An attorney for Derulo did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
Spatola’s case is hardly the first credit controversy over “Savage Love.” Fully entitled “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” the song is a remix of an earlier instrumental called “Laxed (Siren Beat)” – a viral sensation on TikTok that was released by a New Zealand teen using the name Jawsh 685.
According to a report by Variety, Derulo initially engaged in talks about partnering with Jawsh, but later “went rogue” and teased his version in May 2020 before fully reaching any kind of agreement. That move sparked public backlash and private threats of legal action from Sony Music, which had by then signed Jawsh to a record deal.
The situation was seemingly resolved by late June 2020, when the song was formally released with the credits reading “Jawsh 685 x Jason Derulo.” It ultimately spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100, and another remix featuring BTS helped push the song to No. 1 in October 2020.
Spatola, a producer and musician who says he’s worked with Drake, DJ Khaled, Juice WRLD and others, filed his lawsuit in 2023 — claiming he had played a key role in creating the song but hadn’t been properly compensated.
“Derulo … unilaterally released ‘Savage Love,’ without providing any credit whatsoever to Spatola for the work they jointly created together,” his lawyers wrote. “This lawsuit is filed to right that wrong.”
Following Thursday’s decision, those accusations will now be decided by a jury. A trial, expected to run roughly 10 days, is tentatively scheduled for May.
In a statement to Billboard on Friday, Spatola’s attorneys (Thomas Werge of the Werge & Corbin Law Group and Christopher Frost of Frost LLP) praised the ruling and said they “look forward to vindicating Mr. Spatola’s rights” at the upcoming trial.
“For us it represents a resounding rejection of an attempt, through legal maneuvers, to avoid having to face trial for not providing our client with the credit he deserves,” the lawyers said. “The ruling acknowledges that the evidence supports Mr. Spatola’s claim of joint ownership, which will now be heard by a jury.”
Drake’s lawyers are quickly firing back after Universal Music Group’s recent attacks on the rapper’s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” arguing that “millions of people” around the world think the song was literally claiming Drake is a pedophile.
In a motion filed in federal court Thursday (March 20), Drake’s team hit back at UMG’s core defense against the star’s libel lawsuit: That scathing lyrics are par for the course in diss tracks and that most listeners wouldn’t take such “outrageous insults” as statements of fact.
That argument is “doomed to fail,” Drake’s lawyers say in the new filing, because many people really did come away from Lamar’s song believing that he was — as a matter of fact — calling Drake a pedophile.
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“UMG completely ignores the complaint’s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile,” Drake’s attorneys write. “UMG also ignores [the lawsuit’s claim] that the statements in question (and surrounding context) implied that the allegations were based on undisclosed evidence and the audience understood as much.”
Thursday’s filing came in response to a motion from UMG, filed earlier this week, that seeks to halt all discovery in the case. In it, the music giant argued that Drake’s case was almost certain to be dismissed, meaning that handing over evidence would be a waste of time — particularly since his lawyers are allegedly demanding a vast swath of sensitive materials, including Lamar’s record deal.
But in the new response, Drake’s lawyers say that motion “does not come close” to showing that the discovery in the case is the kind of “undue burden” that must be halted: “UMG has not stated how long it expects discovery to take, the costs associated with discovery, or any other indicator that might demonstrate why discovery will be overly burdensome.”
Lamar released “Not Like Us” last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a “certified pedophile” over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right and was the centerpiece of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.
In January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming his label had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about pedophilia that it knew to be false.
This week has seen UMG mount its first formal counterattack — first by filing a motion to dismiss the case on Monday (March 17), then seeking the halt discovery on Tuesday (March 18). In the strongly-worded request to toss the case out, UMG argued not only that the lawsuit was “meritless,” but that the star filed it simply because he was embarrassed: “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”
Drake’s attorneys have said in public statements that the label’s motion to dismiss the case is a “desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability” and that it will be denied. They will file a formal response in opposition to that motion in the weeks ahead.
A former employee of Eminem (Marshall Mathers) has been criminally charged in connection with the sale of unreleased music by the rap superstar, it was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Julie Beck on Wednesday (March 19). According to the criminal complaint, the FBI was contacted by employees of Eminem’s music studio in Ferndale, Michigan, to […]
Alleged Rollin’ 60s Los Angeles Crips gang leader and music executive Eugene “Big U” Henley Jr. has been charged as part of a 107-page sprawling indictment that compares his “Big U Enterprise” to a “mafia-like organization,” the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday (March 19).
According to the DOJ, Henley, 58, remains at large and is considered a fugitive as he faces conspiracy charges related to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. He and his associates are accused of racketeering, extortion, human trafficking, fraud and the murder of a 21-year-old aspiring rapper who signed to his Uneek Music label, among other charges.
Henley is credited with helping launch the career of rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was a member of the Rollin’ 60s in South Central Los Angeles prior to his death in 2019.
Two others named in the indictment, Sylvester “Vey” Robinson and Mark “Bear Claw” Martin, have been arrested on the same criminal complaint in which Henley was charged; both were expected to appear in U.S. District Court in L.A. on Wednesday afternoon. Overall, 10 Rollin’ 60s members have been arrested in the past 24 hours, while another four were already in custody. Law enforcement is currently tracking down five other defendants, “three of whom are expected to be in custody shortly,” according to the DOJ press release. In addition to Henley, one other unnamed defendant is considered a fugitive.
“The allegations in the complaint unsealed today reveal a criminal enterprise that engaged in murder, extortion, human trafficking, and fraud — all led by a supposed anti-gang activist and purported music entrepreneur who was nothing more than a violent street criminal,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally in a statement.
McNally continued: “Eliminating gangs and organized crime is the Department of Justice’s top priority. Today’s charges and arrests target the leadership of this criminal outfit and will make the neighborhoods of Los Angeles safer. I am grateful for the work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners.”
According to the DOJ, Henley was involved in the murder of rapper “R.W.” — the victim’s initials — who signed to his Uneek Music label in January 2021. While recording at a studio in Las Vegas, R.W. allegedly recorded a diss track taking shots at Henley. According to the DOJ, Henley and Robinson then confronted R.W. in Vegas, with Henley allegedly later shooting R.W. in the head and leaving his body in a ditch off Interstate 15. He also allegedly had the studio’s security camera footage scrubbed and ordered any witnesses not to speak with authorities following the murder.
The indictment states that Henley rose to prominence with the Crips gang in the 1980s and has remained a leader within the organization. The feds accuse him of leveraging his relationships with the Rollin’ 60s to the benefit of his Big U Enterprise, which allegedly used violence, fear and intimidation tactics to increase its power.
While associated with the Rollin’ 60s, Big U Enterprise is being treated as an independent organization tied to various crimes also including robbery, exploiting sex workers and illegal gambling.
Per the Los Angeles Times, athletes, celebrities and musicians were among Henley’s extortion victims, who were required to “check-in” for “protection” when visiting Los Angeles. He allegedly defrauded companies, donors, athletes and celebrities, including former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green. Henley allegedly took donations from both men that were meant for charity and transferred the funds to his personal bank account.
Attorney Tony Buzbee is withdrawing from more than a dozen sexual abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York federal court two days after telling a judge he had “made an error in judgment” by failing to disclose that he was not admitted to practice law in that court.
Buzbee, who’s filed more than 20 cases against Combs and has fought an acrimonious battle with Jay-Z after filing a lawsuit by a woman who briefly accused him of rape, filed motions Wednesday (March 19) to withdraw across 15 different civil lawsuits in the Southern District of New York, the federal court district covering Manhattan.
The moves came two days after Buzbee told Judge Ronnie Abrams in one of those cases that he’d “made an error in judgment by failing to inform you that I was not admitted to the Southern District” and would “remedy this error by withdrawing my representation” until he was admitted.
In the same filing, Buzbee stressed that he was “in good standing of the New York State Bar” and would still be “eminently qualified” to continue handling the case, but said he would step away “as I sort these issues out.”
“My admission status has become a distraction that has shifted the focus of the matter away from where it should be, which is securing justice for the plaintiff,” Buzbee told Judge Abrams in the Monday letter.
The lawsuits against Combs will proceed with other attorneys at the helm, and Buzbee will remain in cases filed in New York state courts or other jurisdictions. Buzbee did not return a request for comment from Billboard, but in a Tuesday statement to the Houston Chronicle, he said: “Until that administrative issue is sorted out, my colleagues who are formally admitted in the SDNY will continue to push those cases while I continue to march forward in the New York State cases.”
Combs is facing a flood of abuse accusations, including dozens of civil lawsuits and a sweeping criminal indictment from federal prosecutors. He faces a jury trial on those charges in May; if convicted, he’s looking at a potential life prison sentence.
Buzbee, a well-known plaintiffs’ attorney in the Houston area, announced in October that was representing 120 individuals who had been victimized by Combs and would soon begin filing civil lawsuits on their behalf. He’s since filed more than 20 such cases, mostly repping anonymous Doe accusers who say the star sexually assaulted or raped them.
In December, Buzbee added Jay-Z as a defendant to one of those cases, accusing the star of joining Combs in raping an unnamed 13-year-old girl in 2000. The star vehemently denied the shocking allegations and has subsequently sued Buzbee and the accuser for defamation. In February, Buzbee’s client voluntarily dropped the case against Jay-Z without a settlement.
