Law&Crime Sidebar - Jay-Z Says Lawyer for P. Diddy Accusers Wants Clients to Lie About Assault

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Jay-Z’s lawyers have come forward with information from a woman who called their offices, claiming she’d been dropped as a client by Tony Buzbee’s law firm because she wouldn’t lie. A sworn affidavit from one of Jay-Z’s attorneys details how the woman says she felt manipulated. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sat down with renowned celebrity criminal defense attorney Bradford Cohen to discuss the accusations.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Straight Arrow News app at https://san.com/Sidebar and support journalists like us committed to delivering the truth!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The accusations, war of words, and legal filings in JZ's sexual assault case has got us thinking what could come from this? Liability, more lawsuits, criminal charges? We're going to get into it all with renowned criminal defense attorney to artists like Kodak Black, Lil Wayne, Drake, Bradford Cohen comes on to talk about it all.

Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. So we are still unpacking the fact that Jay-Z, the rapper, the business mogul, and Sean Combs have been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl back in 2000. This allegedly occurred at a VMA's after-party thrown by Combs. And the reason we're talking about this is because Jay-Z has been named officially. as the defendant in this federal lawsuit in New York, this lawsuit that was originally filed in October,

but Jay-Z was only listed as Celebrity A. We didn't know who Celebrity A was. And as shocking as the claims are in this lawsuit, it is also surprising maybe the contentious back-and-forth between Jay-Z, his legal team, and the lawyer representing the unnamed plaintiff in this lawsuit, Tony Busby. So I'm going to get more to that in a minute.

And then there's also this allegation that someone had apparently called Jay-Z's law. lawyers and accused Tony Busby's firm of dropping her as a client because she felt forced to lie about her sexual assault experience. I'm going to get to that too. But you know what is interesting? What does all this mean for Jay-Z? And could there be more lawsuits? Could this lead to criminal charges? So there is a lot to break down with this. But here's the thing. I'm not going to talk about this by myself. I have a special guest. And I have a special guest who is actually with me. First time in studio,

somebody who all of you will recognize if you follow us here on sidebar. We usually have them on Zoom, but now we have them here in person. Renowned Criminal Defense Attorney to the Stars, Bradford Cohen is with us. Bradford, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate it. So let me, we haven't had a chance

to talk about the fact that Jay-Z's been named as a defendant in this civil suit. What's your reaction to that? So, you know, it's interesting because, you know, obviously this civil suit was coming for a while and there was some talk between Busby and Jay Z's lawyers. I think both Busby and Jay Z's lawyers are really alphas. So when you have that combination, when you have that combination, when you have that combination. And listen, there's many criminal defense attorneys and civil attorneys

that I put under that kind of dome of alphas. And when you have two that are going at each other, especially when it's contentious, like this type of accusation, I think it's not a surprise what's going on, like in terms of them investigating Busby, Busby throwing bombs their way. So I don't see this going away very quickly, and I think that it's not a shock that it came because you knew that Jay-Z and Puffy were close. And when it said Celebrity Won in the original complaint, I kind of assumed that it was going to be someone like a Jay-Z. That doesn't mean that those accusations have any bearing whatsoever if they're true or not true, because we haven't seen all of the evidence it's just the accusations and as you know you know busby is one of those lawyers

that he likes the show you know he likes the circus so i don't know if you can take everything as true in terms of the actual complaint itself in terms of investigating it it's just a hard thing to tell because busby does that that's what he's known for i've seen legal analysts talk about this and they say tony busby get around texas lawyer he wouldn't go forward with a case like this because he's gotten, when he first came onto the scene in the Diddy case, you know, he said he's got an intake of 3,000 calls, but he's been selective about who he's chosen to represent, that he wouldn't represent this Jane Doe in a case against Sean Combs or Jay Z unless he felt he had the evidence. What do you think about that?

I think when you're in that community and you're friends with a lot of lawyers, they'll always back you up and say, oh, he wouldn't take a case that was BS. Who knows? You know, we won't know until the evidence starts coming out. Jay Z seems very, very, very. adamant that this didn't take place. He says, go to the police, go talk to the police. If you think that there's something that happens and file a police report? I'll get to that in a second. He can't settle at this point, right? I mean, you tell me. Some people say, you know, I'm going to fight this, I'm going to fight this, and then they end up settling. But look what happened with Sean Combs. He settled the Cassandra Ventura lawsuit the day after it was filed. They did a whole episode

on was it a mistake for him to even allow that to be filed. At this point, he can't risk settling because it'll look like an admission, right? Yeah, I think that there's a couple things going on. some inside baseball, when Sean Combs was negotiating that, I spoke to some lawyers that were involved, and I was like, you know, even if the accusations are false, there's two ways to go about these cases. Either one, you do the economic analysis, right? What is this going to cost me?

Where is it going? How much am I going to lose? All these different things, even if it's false, right? How much is, are the attorney's going to cost me? Right. And then you decide whether or not you want to do that. The second way to that, and I call this the Spartan, route, that's number two. The Sparta route is you go all out and go to war. There's no in

between there. Mr. Miyagi always says, walk on one side of the road, you're safe, walk on the other side of the road, you're safe, walk in the middle, you get squashed. And that's what happened to Sean Combs, right? So he kept saying, like, listen, I'm not paying. This is Sparta. I'm not paying. I'm not going to pay her a dime. Then she files, and then the next day he pays. That's the worst case scenario, because then it's just open season on Sean Combs. And that's what happened. So Jay-Z should learn something from that. His lawyers are not the type that would say, okay, let's settle now. I don't see that ever happening. I think he will spend whatever it takes to make sure that his name is cleared or at least make the attempt to make sure his name is

cleared. And I don't think there is a budget to that. By the way, I have to tell you guys something. So the reason we're able to keep sidebar going strong, producing more episodes, bringing you these stories like Jay-Z, is because you guys trust us day in and day out. to deliver balls and strikes. Just the facts, no spin. Can't tell you how much we appreciate that. But also, that is why we are thrilled to partner with a company like Straight Arrow News.

So this is an app and website that is focused on objective, unbiased reporting. And as somebody who is always researching for sidebar, I get it. I know how easy it is to get lost in biased journalism. Straight Arrow News helps us cut through that with tools like the media landscape, which shows where outlets fall on the political spectrum.

And the media mist tool, highlighting stories mainstream media might be skipping. So check it out for yourself for free. Use the tools that we use to research at san.com slash sidebar or click the link in the description. Supporting them means supporting journalists like us committed to delivering the truth. I want to read you something. So this is something from the amended complaint. It reads, Combs has been allowed for years to conduct himself in this manner without any consequences. He believes he is above the law. He is not. His close friend Sean Carter, Jay Z, has been with Combs during many such instances described he has. are in. Both perpetrators must face justice. If we're thinking about the bigger question here, Bradford, he seems to be indicating there are multiple alleged instances of misconduct

revolving around Jay-Z. Does that mean that he is prepared to file more lawsuits against him with more Jane or John Doe's, if that were the case, because then you're entering into Sean Combs' territory, who there was the Cassandra Ventura lawsuit, and then there was lawsuit after lawsuit, after lawsuit, after lawsuit. What do you think? So I think what he's saying is leading to that. I don't know if he actually has the goods to do it. You know, a lot of times lawsuits are like playing poker. Like you want to, even when you feign, you know, that you have strength, it could be that you have some weakness in your case. So Busby's never going to say that he doesn't have the evidence. I mean, Busby's always going to say he's got the evidence. He's

always going to say, oh, we're going to look at multiple other people. We're going to do all this because he wants to put that fear into that individual because he thinks these individuals have done it. You know, in his mind, he thinks these individuals have done multiple, even if he doesn't have the evidence now, he thinks he can develop that evidence through discovery, through pictures, through other people seeing it. So what he does is he files the first lawsuit, in my opinion. He files the first lawsuit. That first lawsuit, he has some evidence towards whatever it is. And he's hoping people see, oh, wait, Jay-Z, there's a crack in the wall. And then all of a sudden he gets another three calls, four calls. Hey, this was what, right.

And that's how these cases go. And that's why he makes them so public. That's why he makes all these statements. That's why he goes on on these shows because he wants other people to say, hey, I was in a room with Jay-Z and I did this. And, you know, all those have to be, you know, you have to shake those out because everyone's going to want a piece. And if you've seen the past lawsuits that have been filed, some are complete, bogus lawsuits filed against Sean Combs. I mean, I've read some that are just horrible, you know, in terms of like just the allegations that you haven't really put forth a lot of evidence, a lot of facts, a lot of dates. Some are better than others.

And the Busby ones, he tries to put in as much salacious information as he can because he knows that will put more blood in the water and that will get more people out. The problem with Sean Combs is, you know, there was lawsuit after lawsuit, there was lawsuit. And then there was the criminal charges. But even before there was the criminal charges, there was the video, the 2016 videotape that was released of him being Cassandra Ventura. So when that came out, it looked like every one of these allegations is true. I mean, there's most people will say, Sean Combs right now is guilty until, proven innocent. And I think that's what Jay-Z wants to avoid, is more people coming down the

play. Yeah, and that video was really a turning point. I wanted to add something to this. So it was revealed that Jay-Z had actually sued Tony Busby anonymously claiming he was extorting the rapper, you settle, or I will sue you for what Jay-Z claims are false allegations. And in his lawsuit against Tony Busby, and again, we didn't know it was Jay-Z at the time, now we seem to do. There is this statement. Plaintiff John Doe is the victim of a scheme by defendant Anthony G. Busby and his firm, the Busby law firm, who are shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations against him. Defendants have threatened to unleash entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault,

including multiple instances of rape of a minor, both male and female, against plaintiff if he refuses to comply with their demands. So Bradford, does that mean that buzzer, You know, again, going back to this idea, he seems to have indicated Jay-Z that Tony Busby came forward that I don't just have Jane Do. I have more people too, right? Yeah, I think that's a little bit of opening of the curtain there. There is. I think that he came forward with multiple individuals or saying that he had multiple individuals.

I think that was the demand letter that was first sent. And when you represent individuals, like I've represented A to Z, right? And some people that people know I've represented, some people that they don't, they don't, have no idea that I represented. And sometimes we'll get these letters, not necessarily in the same type of vein of sexual assault and things like that, but it could be that there was some sort of physical assault, someone got punched, someone got hurt,

and then they send a demand letter saying like, hey, this is what happened, XYZ. Normally the demand letters are pretty plain Jane. This one sounds a little bit different in terms of the accusations that were made, in terms of the amount of money that was sought. We don't know exactly. I think that he attached one of the demand letters

one of the filings Mr. Busby did. So I think that's where this is all coming from in terms of, you know, where these names are and who they are obviously is going to be very important because then you can start kind of investigating those individuals and seeing if they're really true. I want a criminal aspect. This is the part that we haven't had a chance to talk about. I wanted to ask you about potential criminal charges because when this lawsuit came out, I'm going to lay it out here.

So Jay-Z posted his statement online. And aside from saying that Busby basically tried to blackmail him and his lawyer has called this extortion, but there's this statement that reads in part, my lawyer received a blackmail attempt called a demand letter from a lawyer named Tony Busby. What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No, sir, it had the opposite effect. It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a very public fashion.

So no, I will not give you one red penny. But then he also says, these allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore your you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one. Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case. The issue is, is that even possible? Is that a little disingenuous? Because could she even file a criminal complaint? You know, Tony Busby apparently told TMZ that Jane Doe is not ruling out filing a criminal complaint, saying, what happens next is up to my client, it's her case, and what she decides to do, you will find out.

and due course, but the question I have, hasn't the statute of limitations in New York run? Does it make it not even a possibility? I've seen some say that if we imagine this to be third-degree rape of a minor, that it was five-year statute of limitation. I believe that was maybe changed to 10 years, but then the clock doesn't run until you're no longer a minor, but even if you calculate that, I think it's still too old of a claim. You're talking about something from 24 years ago. I've seen others say that if there was a change in the law, which there apparently was in New York, and the statute of limitations were removed for a certain sex crime, that that can't be applied retroactively.

Constitutionally, it wouldn't be allowed. Now, Nima Romani, who's a frequent legal analyst here on Cybar, told Fox News, when Jay-Z tells the victim in Busby to file criminal charges, that's a red herring. Your thoughts? It can be. I don't know. Honestly, like, when we, I was doing this analysis as well. Yeah.

Like whether or not you can relate it back, whether or not there could be charges that could be filed. I think that that letter from Jay-Z, like, listen, Jay-Z, as much money as he has, Jay-Z is a street guy, right? And he doesn't take this lightly, and I do think that he's never going to settle. I think he's going to go to war and take this as far as he can. Do I think it's disingenuous for him to say, hey, go file a criminal complaint? I think in his mind he might not know what the statute of limitations is. He might not know whether or not you can file, and he might be,

honestly saying like listen go to the police make file a police report and here's the thing even if the statute of limitations ran it doesn't stop her from filing a police report doesn't stop her from giving a statement to the police it still backs up some things and don't forget in federal court he could still be swept up into a rico he still there could be other sorts of actions that took place over time and all of those would relate back so if it's a federal crime i mean they're looking at at a ditty for things that occurred way out of the statute limitations because it's almost like a RICO, right? So they're relating it back in time and saying this is an ongoing criminal kind of conspiracy that this has been going on. So when he says

go to the police, file a police report, he could be swept up if it was, if it's true, he could be swept up into the, into the Sean Combe stuff. So I don't think he's being disingenuous by it because, yeah, maybe in state court, that might be true that he can't be filed on. But in federal court, and if they make it part of an ongoing conspiracy and your co-conspirator was arrested, then they can still sweep you up into it. I remember the Jeffrey Epstein case, he was charged federally with respect to minors back in the, you know, in the 90s. But again, if it comes out that Jay-Z is sued by more people, right, then that federal case could be more of a reality. Correct. And like I said, I don't think he, if it was a red herring, it would mean like,

okay, there's no chance, right? In my opinion, when it's a red herring, that means there's chance that they could be. And I honestly think there could be a chance if someone made a police report and they felt that it was an ongoing criminal conspiracy with Sean Combs or with anyone else, they could sweep all of those up into a federal charge. Now, Bradford, before, we've talked a little bit about the back and forth, the demand letter. If you think, you know, is there anybody breaking protocol here by how it happened? But what about this separate issue about whether or not Jane Doe should have to proceed by revealing her identity.

You know, Tony Busby says that she should proceed anonymously in this case. It's a way to protect her, given the threats of violence from Sean Combs, the sensitive nature of these allegations, that if she was identified and talking about what happened to her or allegedly happened to her, could re-traumatize her. Jay-Z says, look, he has a right to know who she is and challenge her. Who's right? So this is a very tricky situation, right? So it depends, it's like a lawyer answer, it depends.

So if you can say that she's in danger because of what Sean Combs has like made threats, allegedly made threats to witnesses and things like that, that's very strong to say, hey, we need to just keep the initials. I always make the argument, even if it's not made public, I have to know who she is, I have to know all the information, I have to know that information now so I can start doing my research, I can start figuring out who it is. It's not always necessarily prudent to make someone public in these situations because of physical threats. My argument would be that she hasn't received any physical threats. This is something

that happened allegedly 24 years ago. We need to do full, you know, background. And not only that, individuals that may know her when it comes out that this is a public, you know, this is her name, those individuals may want to come forward. So like if I just find out it's Jane Doe and the public doesn't know it, how do I start asking individuals, hey, had you have interactions with her, does she have a veracity for truthfulness? What if, what if, you know, someone that she was roommates with, she stole a check from. I don't know any of those things. And when you don't make those individuals public, you really had a loss because once that

name is public, it's just like blood in the water. People that know you may come forward, people, you know, a worker at McDonald's may say, I remember, you know, like, you know, these things happen, right? These things happen. So all that happens when things are made public. I'm a big fan of pulling back the curtain on everything. Let's look at it all. Let's figure out if this is truthful, especially when it's heinous accusations like this.

Like someone should say, hey, this is who it is. And I understand the other side of that. But I think the weight should go to really defend it in this case and really make that public so they can really hammer down and find out if it's true. Well, right now in other Sean Combs' cases, judges have to rule that the Jane knows have to reveal themselves. So we'll see if that happens there. Look, they obviously want her to reveal herself for a number of reasons. One, they say she doesn't reveal herself. They think that this lawsuit should be thrown out.

I think they also probably imagine that if she reveals herself, maybe she won't continue with this case if the world knows who she is. But here's what's really interesting. One of the reasons they say they want to know who she is and properly investigate her claims to see if they're true or what they seem to be alleging whether or not Busby and his firm are kind of pushing her in a certain direction as this is what I really wanted to talk to you about,

is that Jay-Z's lawyers, his counsel, filed a letter with the court. And they say that a woman called their offices randomly. She says that she called Tony Busby's firm regarding allegations of sex trafficking and abuse, but it had nothing to do with Sean Combs. She made it clear to them. And she says, even though she made it clear to them, the firm representative asked her, when did you meet Diddy? And she reemphasized again, my claims aren't about him. So she even said that they encouraged her to proceed anonymously. She didn't want to do that. They also discouraged her from contacting law enforcement. She said she felt pressured to make false claims about what happened to her,

about being drugged, held down, physically assaulted. She said that really didn't happen. And she says that when she refused to adopt the narrative that Busby's firm had seemingly wanted her to go forward with, she was dropped as a client. And the associate who spoke with this woman, recounted this conversation in a sworn declaration with the court, claim that this woman, quote, felt forced to lie. Now, Jay-Z's firm says that this is further, evidence that Jane Doe in his lawsuit, she shouldn't be able to proceed anonymously, that Jay Z and his team have a right to thoroughly investigate and respond to these allegations. But according to TMZ, Busby responded, saying, this is ridiculous.

If someone calls our intake and has a viable case that we believe has merit and we can pursue, we will pursue it. We are currently pursuing hundreds of cases against individuals other than P. Diddy. What we won't do is pursue a case that we don't believe has merit. And I can't speak to what she told the intake folks to even tell. you what this woman claimed if, if and when she called. And he says, we certainly don't need to pressure anyone to pursue a case. And in a legal filing, Busby says, I categorically deny all of the baseless allegations levied by Mr. Carter and his counsel. And he goes on to say,

we will also address verifiable improprieties committed by defense counsel outright illegal conduct for which we have actual evidence. What do you make of that? Very little. I thought this is bigger than that. Listen, I think that this is posturing. I don't know. So I think it's big on the woman that's saying that she was forced to lie and things of that nature. As long as we can verify that she's telling the truth, if there's a way to verify that she's actually telling the truth on what was said and how it was said and how it was done. Now, don't forget, like, when people come to your office or people discuss things with you, they're not lawyers, right?

So if you say, hey, listen, you should really go in anonymously. This shouldn't be something that you want your name out there for or things like that that you're giving advice. They may take that the wrong way. I don't know. So that's kind of the first part of that, right? The second part of that is that you felt forced to lie about something. Again, I don't know what the language was.

It's not a good accusation if it's true. But again, a lot's lost in the language of that. So I don't immediately put Busby on the cross and say, okay, like he did something wrong. I don't know. Same thing from Busby saying like, oh, we have evidence. The defense did all these things. That's a lot of posturing. And I think there's a lot of posturing going on in this case.

Like everyone's kind of beating their chest. Everyone's lining up, you know, all the shields are going down and the spears are coming out. So it doesn't surprise me that they're going at it like this and that he's saying, oh, they did things wrong and they're saying he did things wrong. Because in this type of case, when the accusations are what the accusations are, the lawyers start attacking each other because they're such heinous accusations. And the way these lawyers operate, especially Mr. Busby. And I know Alex Spiro as well.

And my interactions with Alex Spiro has always been good. Like I've never seen him do something underhanded or anything like that. By the way, just talking about this is a guy who's represented Elon Musk. Sure. Alec Baldwin. So he's a very high, oh, he's Mayor Eric Adams here in New York. So you know him. Yeah, I know.

And I think that I've never seen him do anything underhanded. I've talked to him about cases. I've never heard of anything. I know the firm he works for. In fact, one of my good friends is the managing partner of that firm. So I don't know anything that he would have done that could be underhanded. And, like, again, I think it's just a lot of posturing and the attorneys are going at each other because that's this type of case. You got a very aggressive attorney on one side, Busby, who goes after everybody.

He's like an ex-Marine, and I think he takes it very seriously. he's like Effley Bailey back in the day, Marine to Marine. So, you know, that kind of guy. And when you get that kind of guy and then you get an Alex Spiro on the other side, that's kind of like me. And they were both aggressive and we both kind of do those things. That's what happens. You get a lot of accusations like this.

I mean, he, Busby is basically accusing them of engaging in illegal conduct, whether it's, I mean, he used the word defamation at one point. He said that either filings were improper. I think that he's also challenging their tactics about going after him and his firm. And on the other hand, you have Jay-Z and his counselor are saying, this guy's engaging in extortion. So it's not just bad, like, vibes. It's not just, you know, loyering where they're disagreeing them. They're accusing each other essentially of either breaking the law or breaking ethics rules.

Yeah. And like I said, the thing that I think is more serious, the young lady who said that she felt she was forced to lie, I think that's a serious accusation. And if it's held to be true, that is a death blow, right? If that is true, what they have where he's saying- But does that relate, though, to the idea of Jane Doe having to proceed anonymously or not? Or is it, because you're basically saying, I mean, the argument's tenuous, right? Because this woman called our office and said the Busby firm is engaging in some underhanded kind of things, we have a right to now more thoroughly investigate Jane Doe because she might be being pressured by Busby

or we don't know what her claims are. It's a little bit of a tenuous argument. It's a tenuous argument, but it undermines, whenever you can undermine another lawyer or a lawsuit or anything like that in terms of veracity for truthfulness, that's not good, right? No judge likes to read that some lady was forced to say something or that she was forced to lie. And if it's true and a judge finds that out, that's not good. Because you can never, you know, my dad used to say a reputation is like building a wall, right? It's like one brick at a time, one brick at a time. But what can happen is one bolder comes through and it knocks the whole.

wall down and then you can never rebuild that wall yeah so it comes that's the same thing when it comes to judges if you're going to do something underhanded and the judge finds something like that out you don't get that back you don't get that credibility back just like in the ditty case where you know one book didn't say legal on it and then when he got it it said legal on it that that doesn't come back there's always that in the back of your mind the judge doesn't forget it the judge never forgets it all right so this is just it was not even been a week since this was filed let's see what happens next week i'm sure the back and forth will continue. Bradford Cohen, my goodness, thank you so much for coming in. Great to see him

person. Great to see you. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.