There have been more developments in relation to the many allegations of sexual assault against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over the last week, with new lawsuits being filed and the musician giving up on his bid for bail. Meanwhile Jay-Z – also accused of rape in one of the Diddy lawsuits – has further laid into the lawyer leading on that litigation, Tony Buzbee.
Lawyers for Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, hit out at Buzbee yet again after at media interview with the unnamed woman who says both Combs and Carter raped her at a party in New York in 2000 when she was just thirteen years old. The interview with NBC News, says Carter’s legal team, shows the woman’s allegations “for what they are: a sham”, because “basic facts in her narrative are wrong”.
In a letter to the New York court where Buzbee filed the lawsuit, Carter’s attorneys insist that the “stunning revelations” in the new interview “make clear” that legal papers put together by Buzbee on behalf of his client “had no factual basis whatsoever”. Which means, they add, Buzbee failed in his duties under ‘federal rules of civil procedure’ to “conduct a reasonable inquiry into the facts and the law before filing”.
Carter and his lawyers have been publicly scathing of Buzbee – who is leading on numerous lawsuits against Combs – ever since this one lawsuit was amended to include Carter as a co-defendant. To date Buzbee has been equally forthright in his responses.
In their letter, Carter’s attorneys list various claims by his accuser which they say are demonstrably wrong. She claims the assault took place at a party at Combs’ home, but photos show the party took place at a nightclub. She claims she spoke to Benji Madden of Good Charlotte at the party, but he was on tour in the Midwest at the time. She says her father picked her up after the assault, but he denies that happened.
In her interview with NBC News, Carter’s accuser admitted that she has “made some mistakes” in her recollections of the night of the alleged assault, which did, after all, happen 24 years ago. However, she says she still stands by her core allegations against Carter and Combs.
Nevertheless, Buzbee should never have filed this lawsuit, the letter from Carter’s attorneys concludes, adding that, “at minimum, he should withdraw” the litigation now.
“Allowing these claims to remain pending even a moment longer”, they add, “not only harms Mr Carter, his family, his businesses, his employees and his legacy – it also impairs the integrity of the judicial system, thwarts the pursuit of justice and silences the voices of true victims”.
Combs’ lawyers, meanwhile, are now dealing with more than 30 lawsuits accusing the musician of sexual assault and other misconduct. Three more were filed last week, each by a man who claims he was drugged and raped by Combs in incidents that allegedly took place in 2019 and 2020.
Combs also faces criminal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, of course, and has been in jail ever since he was arrested and charged in September. A priority of his legal team to date has been trying to get Combs bail so he doesn’t have to prepare for his trial, scheduled for next May, while in prison.
However, judges have repeatedly rejected his bail requests and last week Combs’ lawyers said he was no longer appealing the most recent judgement to that effect. Which basically means he has now accepted that he will remain in jail through to the May 2025 trial.