Jay-Z’s Extortion Lawsuit Against Lawyer Over Child Rape Claim Dismissed By Appeals Court
Categoria: Musica
The rapper vowed to punish the attorney who filed the stunning accusation, but an appeals court now says threat letters did not amount to extortion.
Por Billboard | 10/09/2026
A California appeals court has ruled that Jay-Z cannot sue a personal injury attorney for extortion or defamation over a shocking lawsuit that accused the superstar of raping a 13-year-old girl. Tony Buzbee accused the rapper (Shawn Carter) in 2024 of raping a child alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs decades earlier — then dropped the case just months later. Jay-Z strongly denied it and fought back, claiming the lawyer had fabricated the claims to extort him. Related N.O.R.E. Sued for Alleged 1999 Sexual Assault of Music Exec in New York Nightclub Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats Duane 'Keffe D' Davis Gives First Interview After Tupac Shakur Murder Conviction But in a ruling Wednesday (Sept. 9), California’s Second Appellate District ruled the rap icon could not sue Buzbee for either extortion or defamation over the salacious accusations, even if they were quickly dismissed. “The record contains no evidence Buzbee accused Carter of raping Jane Doe while knowing those statements to be false or with reckless disregard as to whether they were true,” the appeals court wrote in a decision obtained by Billboard . “To the contrary, Buzbee submitted declarations showing his firm’s … investigations led him to subjectively believe in the truth of the accusations.” In a statement to Billboard on Thursday (Sept. 10), Buzbee said: “I said when the case was filed it was total bulls–t. The trial court dumped it and the appellate court affirmed. I’m now entitled to my fees and costs and I intend to get every red penny that I spent dealing with it.” A spokesman for Jay-Z did not immediately return a request for comment. Much of Jay-Z’s lawsuit turned on a recorded interview between private investigators and the anonymous accuser, in which the woman supposedly admitted the claims were false and that Buzbee had pressured her to lie. But a lower judge ruled last year that the tape was inadmissible hearsay and refused to consider it as evidence. In Wednesday’s decision, the appeals court affirmed that earlier ruling. Echoing skepticism expressed at a hearing last month , the three-judge panel ruled that Jane Doe could have felt pressured by the private investigators and made her statement out of fear of her name being made public. “Coupled with the fact that one of the investigators also told Jane Doe ‘if you cooperate and kind of tell us what’s going on, everything remains a Jane Doe,’ the court reasonably concluded Jane Doe felt she needed to cooperate and help Carter if she wanted to remain anonymous and not be sued,” the appeals court wrote. Buzbee, who filed dozens of civil abuse cases against Diddy, added Jay-Z to one of them in December 2024, claiming the two had drugged and assaulted a teen girl in 2000 during an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z immediately called the lawsuit a “blackmail attempt” by Buzbee and vowed to fight fire with fire. “You have made a terrible error in judgement t