JAY-Z’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Tony Buzbee Gets Dismissed

JAY-Z‘s campaign against Tony Buzbee has run into a snag. A California judge dismissed his extortion and defamation lawsuit against the controversial attorney.

Mark Epstein, a Los Angeles County judge, admitted he was not “wholly satisfied” with his decision in a new 65-page ruling, per Rolling Stone. Epstein said he had to weigh the “competing interests at play,” but would ultimately leave the final decision in the hands of the Court Of Appeal. So, despite making this decision, he ended his ruling saying to “stay tuned.”

Hov sued Buzbee last year after the rape accusations against him were dropped, which the Texas lawyer was a driving force behind. The Brooklyn rapper claimed that Buzbee knew he was operating on false information, yet still proceeded with the suit. He also accused the 56-year-old attorney of contacting him on two separate occasions to demand money before adding him to Diddy’s rape lawsuit, which Hov believes was due to him not handing over the requested money.

The “99 Problems” rapper’s legal team was not pleased with Judge Epstein’s decision. “We are surprised and disappointed by this ruling which turns on the misapplication of California law on the admissibility of the investigators’ statements,” his lawyer, Alex Spiro, told Rolling Stone.

“Notably, the Judge expressly states that his decision would have ‘change[d] dramatically’ if he had admitted the statements into evidence as they would have shown ‘not only that Carter had nothing to do with any sexual assault on Doe, but that Buzbee knew it…’ and thus ‘the court would come out the other way on this motion.’ What does it say about our justice system if someone can knowingly bring about completely false claims of the most heinous nature imaginable against an innocent individual and get away with it on a technicality?”

Buzbee, on the other hand, was thrilled to be on the right side of a dropped lawsuit this time around. “Yet another huge win!!” he wrote on X. “John Doe’s case against me and The Buzbee Law Firm alleging extortion and defamation was thrown out by the court. As I said when it was filed, the case was completely meritless. We will now seek attorneys’ fees against John Doe for bringing the legally flawed case.”