- An anonymous celebrity has sued attorney Tony Buzbee, accusing him of an extortion plot.
- Buzbee represents clients in sex abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
- The Texas-based lawyer slammed the lawsuit as “not only without legal merit,” but also “laughable.”
A mystery celebrity has accused the high-profile Texas attorney who is representing dozens of clients in sex abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs of orchestrating an extortion plot meant to destroy his reputation.
The plaintiff, identified only as “John Doe,” alleges in a newly filed lawsuit that attorney Tony Buzbee and his law firm are “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him.”
The plaintiff’s lawyer identified him in court papers as a “celebrity and public figure” who lives in Los Angeles. The plaintiff says in the lawsuit that Buzbee and his namesake firm have “threatened to unleash entirely fabricated and malicious” sexual assault allegations against him that include multiple accusations of the rape of a minor if he “refuses to comply with their demands.”
“These baseless accusations are nothing more than a weapon in a calculated plot to destroy Plaintiff’s high-profile reputation for profit, despite the complete absence of any factual basis for such claims,” says the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the high-powered law firm Quinn Emanuel.
The lawsuit also alleges that Buzbee and his firm have an “established pattern of making threats and then using third parties to contact the extortion victim, thereby acting as puppet masters, orchestrating their extortion plots from behind the scenes.”
In a statement to Business Insider, Buzbee slammed the lawsuit against him and his Houston-based firm, the Buzbee Law Firm, as “not only without legal merit,” but also “laughable.”
“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 said. “That effort is a gross miscalculation.”
Following Combs’ September arrest and indictment on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution, Buzbee said at a press conference that his firm is representing 120 accusers with sexual misconduct claims against Combs and promised to file a wave of lawsuits against the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper.
Buzbee said the cases will also include allegations against other celebrities.
Since October, Buzbee’s firm has filed more than a dozen lawsuits on behalf of anonymous Jane and John Doe plaintiffs against Combs, with some alleging the drugging and raping of minors.
One of those lawsuits accuses Combs of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards as two other unnamed celebrities watched. The lawsuit also alleges that one of those celebrities raped the girl.
Combs, who remains locked up in a Brooklyn jail, has vehemently denied the federal charges against him, as well as any sexual misconduct accusations that have been lodged against him in lawsuits. His attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
“With Combs behind bars, and payment unlikely to be forthcoming any time soon, Defendants devised a scheme to obtain payments through the use of coercive threats from anyone with any ties to Combs,” Monday’s lawsuit against Buzbee says.
The lawsuit says that in November, Buzbee made written “Extortion Demands” to the mystery celebrity plaintiff, which contained false allegations of “vile conduct” by him. The plaintiff was characterized in the letter as having been friends with Combs since the two often attended similar celebrity events, the lawsuit says.
The “Extortion Demands” alleged that the plaintiff raped multiple minors who had been drugged at Combs’ parties, says the lawsuit, which accuses Buzbee and his firm of threatening to “take a different course” if the plaintiff did not commit to a “confidential mediation” to resolve the matter.
“Plaintiff presently faces a gun to his head—either repeatedly pay an exorbitant sum of money to stop Defendants from the wide publication of wildly false allegations of sexual assault that would subject Plaintiff to opprobrium and irreparably harm Plaintiff’s reputation, family, career and livelihood, or else face the threat of an untold number of civil suits and financial and personal ruin,” the lawsuit continues.
The plaintiff claims Buzbee and his firm are engaging in a “cynical extortion scheme that is dressed up in vindicating victims of actual sexual abuse.”
Buzbee said in his statement to BI that his firm, on behalf of two clients alleging sexual assault, sent a standard demand letter to a New York lawyer he says represents an “alleged perpetrator and potential defendant.”
“The letters were sent seeking a confidential mediation in lieu of filing a lawsuit,” Buzbee said. “No amount of money was included in the demand letters. No threats were made. The demand letters sent are no different than the ones routinely sent by lawyers across the country in all types of cases.”
Buzbee said in his statement that he and his clients won’t be “silenced or intimidated” and vowed to move forward with filing a lawsuit.
“Since our professional efforts at resolution obviously have failed, we will instead disclose the demand letters we sent at the time we file suit,” said Buzbee. “Abuse of the legal system unfortunately runs rampant. The lawsuit filed against my firm is a prime example of that. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. I have confidence that with full public disclosure all of this will sort itself out.”
