Attorney Tony Buzbee has filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation, lawyer Marcy Croft and Alex Spiro’s law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Buzbee sued Roc Nation and its attorneys for violations of various state laws, including barratry (filing frivolous lawsuits) and impersonation of a public official.
Buzbee filed the lawsuit, on behalf of a former client of his law firm. He announced the filing Wednesday in a post on Instagram. The suit alleges that agents for Roc Nation and its lawyers posed as employees of the state of Texas, “flashed fake badges” and offered the client up to $10,000 to sue the Buzbee Law Firm.
Buzbee has previously accused Roc Nation and its attorneys of threatening his family to intimidate him and force him to drop the lawsuit against Jay-Z.
Buzbee added Jay-Z to a lawsuit filed by an Alabama woman against Sean Combs in October. The suit accuses Combs and Jay-Z of r*ping “Jane Doe” when she was 13.
Roc Nation scoffed at Buzbee’s latest lawsuit on Wednesday.
“Tony Buzbee’s baloney lawsuit against Roc Nation is nothing but another sham. It’s a pathetic attempt to distract and deflect attention. This sideshow won’t change the ultimate outcome and true justice will be served soon,” a Roc Nation spokesperson said in a statement.
Buzbee claims Roc Nation associates approached his clients and illegally offered to pay them to sue his firm. He claims it’s happened “more than two dozen times.”
“The lawsuit filed today alleges that the Defendants’ conspiracy is intended to obstruct justice and prevent the Buzbee Law Firm from pursuing cases related to the Diddy litigation in New York. The conduct isn’t just alleged-it was caught on tape,” Buzbee wrote.
During a press conference at Roc Nation’s NYC headquarters on Monday, Spiro said the allegations against Jay-Z were “provably demonstrably false.” Spiro was confident that the case against Jay-Z would be dismissed this week.
Spiro insisted Jay-Z and Sean Combs only knew each other professionally and that they weren’t close friends.
“They knew each other professionally for a number of years. Just like in all professions, people know each other. At music awards, they support each other,” Spiro said of Jay-Z and Sean Combs. “They go to the NBA All-Star Game, they support each other. That’s just how professions work. There is no closer association between any of them — that’s also a matter of fiction. That’s all that there is. He doesn’t know anything about the charges or allegations against [Combs]. He has nothing to do with that case and there’s nothing more to say.”