Several weeks before Jay-Z was accused in a lawsuit of raping a minor with Sean Combs, he received a letter from a plaintiff’s lawyer threatening to “immediately file” a “public lawsuit” against him unless he agreed to resolve the matter through mediation for money, his lawyers said.
Lawyers for Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter), who has vehemently denied the allegations, took a different tack: They sued the attorney who sent the demand letter, Tony Buzbee, who has filed a cascade of lawsuits accusing Mr. Combs, known as Diddy, of sexual misconduct.
In the suit, in which Mr. Carter was identified only as “John Doe” and described as a “celebrity and public figure,” the rapper accused Mr. Buzbee of attempting to “extort exorbitant sums” from him by making false assault claims.
On Sunday night, Mr. Buzbee amended a lawsuit on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff to publicly accuse Mr. Carter of raping her with Mr. Combs when she was 13, in 2000, which Mr. Carter denied. And on Monday, Mr. Carter’s lawyers revealed that he was the “John Doe” who had filed the suit against Mr. Buzbee.
“Plaintiff presently faces a gun to his head,” lawyers for Mr. Carter wrote in the suit, filed on Nov. 18 in Los Angeles Superior Court, “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.”
In an email on Monday, Mr. Buzbee said that “sending a basic litigation demand letter” did not amount to extortion or blackmail, noting, “That’s the legal practice.” He said the letter sent to Mr. Carter asked for a “confidential sit down” to discuss the accusations so their client’s privacy would be protected.
“We won’t get bogged down in a silly sideshow that tries to make the lawyers the focus of what are very serious allegations brought by a courageous woman,” Mr. Buzbee wrote.
In her suit, the woman, who is identified only as “Jane Doe,” accuses Mr. Carter and Mr. Combs of raping her at an after-party for the MTV Video Music Awards.
Mr. Buzbee has called Mr. Carter’s suit against him and his firm “utterly frivolous” and accused the rapper’s lawyers of harassing the plaintiff’s lawyers and their associates in an attempt to prevent them from publicly naming Jay-Z. The rapper’s legal team called their conduct “routine investigative activities” related to the dispute.
Though Mr. Carter’s lawyers said in court papers that they had received demand letters regarding two clients of Mr. Buzbee, only one suit, from the woman who said she attended the party, has been filed.
Mr. Combs, who is in jail awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, has denied sexually assaulting anyone, is fighting the lawsuits in court and has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.
The public tangle between the high-profile lawyers follows Mr. Buzbee’s well-publicized entrance into the Combs legal saga.
After Mr. Combs was indicted, Mr. Buzbee held a news conference, sought clients through a hotline and issued warnings that he planned to involve people and corporations adjacent to Mr. Combs in an incoming flood of litigation. Mr. Buzbee said he had a team vetting the claims and that the names that the investigators had collected from accusers “will shock you,” stirring up weeks of speculation online.
On Monday, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr. Carter, asked a federal judge in New York to require the accuser to reveal her name. He said the rapper had no idea who the plaintiff could be.
In cases where a judge allows a plaintiff to proceed anonymously, the defendant is typically provided the accuser’s name to mount a defense. But Mr. Carter’s lawyers argued that it is a critical part of the judicial process to make a plaintiff’s identity known to the public, in part because it can prompt people with valuable information to come forward.
In court papers, Mr. Buzbee argued that the plaintiff should be allowed to proceed anonymously because she was 13 at the time of the alleged assault and because she fears retribution for coming forward.
Mr. Combs is facing at least 30 lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct. More than half of them were initially filed anonymously. In at least two cases, judges have ordered plaintiffs to reveal their identities, prompting them to refile the suits. Others have allowed the suits to move forward anonymously on a temporary basis.
The country superstar Garth Brooks also sued as a celebrity “John Doe” this year in a pre-emptive action when notified that a woman was planning to accuse him of sexual assault in a civil suit.
Mr. Brooks’s lawyers said in court papers that the suit was a response to efforts to extract a payment from him by filing false allegations. The woman, undeterred, then sued Mr. Brooks, under a pseudonym of Jane Doe.
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