Jay-Z’s defamation claim against Tony Buzbee on the way to proceed

Can I get a … test?

A Los Angeles judge said Tuesday that Jay-ZThe defamation claim against the high profile lawyer Tony Buzbee will exceed a legal challenge and may proceed to trial. In a tentative ruling and comments from the court during a long hearing, Judge Mark H. Epstein said he believed the question of whether Buzbee acted recklessly and with real malice when he Called Jay-Z as accused of a violation demand Last December he had enough merit to advance.

The same judge also said that he was leaning for dismissing the rapper related extortion claim against Buzbee. At the end of the two -hour hearing, Judge Epstein refused to issue a final ruling, saying that he needed more time to digest the oral arguments of lawyers on both sides.

Jay-Z First sue Buzbee anonymously In November, affirm that Texas’s lawyer was “blatantly” trying to extort him while representing dozens of plaintiffs with claims against the accused music tycoon Be combs. Three weeks later, Buzbee filed a complaint amended on December 8 that called Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, such as the male celebrity that supposedly raped a 13 -year -old girl Together with combs in a residence in New York City in 2000. Carter immediately denied the accusation and confirmed that it was the John Doe who filed the demand for extortion. The Jane Doe behind the rape demand passed voluntarily He will dismiss your complaint with prejudice, which means that it cannot be presented again, on February 14 after Admitting that there were inconsistencies in its history.

In his tentative ruling, Judge Epstein discovered that Carter had a basis for sue Buzbee for defamation after Buzbee referred to Jane Doe as a “survivor of sexual assault” in a social media post on November 18, 2024 and Then he “liked” a position in X, previously Twitter, a day later, that speculated that Carter was the assailant of John Doe described in The demand for violation.

“When someone says that Doe is Carter, and (Buzbee) ‘he likes’, it is not unreasonable to infer that (Buzbee) has just affirmed that he is right, that Doe is Carter,” Judge Epstein told Buzbee’s lawyers in a Court in Santa Monica, California, said the positions, taken together, created a tremendable issue, and that the celebrity status of Carter, as well as the public interest in the case, Carter meant had to demonstrate “real malice.” The judge said that the failure of a lawyer in conducting an exhaustive investigation of a possible client would not be sufficient on its own. But if a lawyer “expressly stated” that customers were being properly investigated and then a lawsuit was filed with a lower investigation, that could create a different standard.

“Not having done the investigation that we all would like to do is not to be enough to show real malice, I know. The concern I have is juxtaposing that with the statements of Mr. Buzbee that he was not going to file a lawsuit until he has completed a complete investigation, ”said Judge Epstein. “I agree that this is the most difficult issue of the case, the question of ‘real malice’. If he says: ‘I will not name names until I have conducted a real investigation’, and then appoint a name, isn’t it the involvement that he conducted a real investigation? And if you did not, okay? Real malice is not yet satisfied when I tell the public: “I did a real investigation and this guy dedicated himself to child violation,” And not really? “

Judge Epstein said to knock out Carter’s extortion claim seemed to be an easier decision. In his tentative ruling, he wrote that the two letters of demand for Buzbee sent to Carter in November made “not promises to refrain from going to the police” if Carter agreed to pay an agreement. “Selling silence regarding the application of the law for money is extortion, but there is no promise of silence in the criminal context here. And selling silence for money in the civil context is not extortion; It is an agreement with an element of non -dissemination, ”he wrote. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 26.

In an affidavit filed on February 10, Carter said he had not exaggerated that he has seen Buzbee’s promise to appoint him in the demand for violation if he did not measure the dispute an “existential threat” for his reputation, career and family.

“I felt that Mr. Buzbee was placing a gun in my head that I lean to his demands or supported personal and financial ruin. His actions caused me mental anguish about the time bomb and what I would do to me, my family and my reputation won, “he wrote.” It was incredibly painful for my wife and for me sitting with our children, one of whom has An age in which his friends would surely see the press and ask questions about these statements, and explain this. It was when she falsely states that these atrocious acts occurred.

He said that after Buzbee became public with “false accusations”, his company Roc Nation lost contracts worth $ 20 million per year. He also questioned the moment of the amended complaint filed on December 8.

“Others criticized me hard for accompanying my daughter to the premiere of her film (MUFASA: The lion king) One day after Mr. Buzbee filed Jane Doe’s demand against me. The media reported that Disney doubted my attendance at the premiere due to the accusations, ”Carter said. “I think Mr. Buzbee filed this demand on purpose on the eve of my daughter’s premiere to put me in the position of having to choose between supporting my daughter or hiding to avoid negative press coverage.”