A California appeals court has ruled that Jay-Z cannot sue a personal injury attorney for extortion or defamation.
The musician’s bid to sue was in response to a lawsuit that accused him of raping a 13-year-old girl.
In 2024, Tony Buzbee accused Jay-Z, known legally as Shawn Carter, of raping a child alongside Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs decades earlier, then dropped the case just months later.
Jay-Z denied the allegations and fought back, claiming the lawyer had fabricated the claims to extort him.
In a new ruling, California’s Second Appellate District has decreed that the rap icon cannot sue Buzbee for 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, Buzbee asserted, “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.”
