By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-19 23:16:57 | Updated at 2024-12-31 23:58:01
1 week ago
The prominent Texas-based attorney taking on Sean Diddy Combs, and now Jay-Z, in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, has a dark past of his own, DailyMail.com has learned.
Tony Buzbee, who is representing over 100 people with sexual misconduct allegations against Combs, has also recently found himself at war with Jay-Z after dragging the hip-hop mogul into an anonymous complaint accusing the two rappers of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
But unearthed records – including a bleary-eyed mugshot – reveal Buzbee once faced legal troubles himself when he was busted for DWI in 2016, the National Enquirer first reported.
DailyMail.com has confirmed that the hotshot attorney was arrested by Houston Police on March 31 that year and was charged with driving while intoxicated. He was later released after posting $500 bail.
More recently, the high-profile personal injury lawyer, who has handled previous civil suits against other public figures and celebs including NFL star Deshaun Watson and rapper Travis Scott, has become embroiled in a public legal feud that has seen more of his skeletons come out of the woodwork.
The case was dismissed by the Harris County District Attorney's office after Buzbee completed a one-year education program in just eight months.
In October Buzbee announced he was representing some 120 people, men and women, with allegations of sexual misconduct against Combs.
Among the anonymous lawsuits is one from an accuser, identified as Jane Doe, who claims she was assaulted when she was 13 at a party after the award show, which took place September 7, 2000 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.
The lawsuit had initially been filed in New York's Southern District this past October against Combs, with a refiling on Sunday that identified the rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter.
Tony Buzbee, who is representing over 100 people with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean Diddy Combs, is seen in a bleary-eyed mugshot from his 2016 DWI bust in Texas
Buzbee has recently found himself at war with Jay-Z - as well as Diddy - after dragging the Roc Nation founder into an anonymous complaint accusing the two rappers of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl
Jay-Z has vehemently denied wrongdoing and Combs, who is already behind bars facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, has also denied the rape allegation
Jay-Z released a statement not only dismissing the allegation but trashing the reputation and integrity of the Houston personal-injury attorney who's been hailed as one of the most successful trial lawyers in Texas, accusing him of a shakedown.
'My lawyer received a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter, from a "lawyer" named Tony Buzbee,' Carter wrote, claiming that Buzbee was filing frivolouss lawsuits against the rich aand famous, but offering to drop them for a payment.
'What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle,' wrote the rapper.
'No sir, it had the opposite effect!' he added. '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!!'
Combs, who is already behind bars facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, has also denied the rape allegation.
Both sides – Jay-Z plus his lawyer Alex Spiro, and Buzbee – have accused the other of using underhand, coercive tactics.
Team Carter alleges Buzbee added Jay-Z's name to a lawsuit first filed in October in revenge after he refused to pay off his accuser with an 'exorbitant' sum, prompting Carter to sue Buzbee for extortion in Los Angeles last month.
Spiro also claims Buzbee's firm might be pressuring potential clients to make false accusations in lawsuits – an allegation the lawyer denies.
Buzbee denies any attempt at extortion, dismissing the Team Carter claims as a 'silly sideshow' intended to distract from the rape allegation.
Buzbee shared a photo of himself in uniform on Instagram Sunday saying he is still the Marine platoon commander he once was
Buzbee claimed people have been harassing him and his family
Since quitting the Marines and launching his own law firm in 2000, 56-year-old Buzbee has amassed a huge fortune. He happily posts pictures to social media variously on lavish vacations, smoking cigars, decked out in expensive jewelry and on his private jet
Jay-Z, meanwhile, has heaped on the abuse with a string of personal attacks on Buzbee, a former US Marine.
'You claim to be a marine?!,' the rapper scoffed last week. 'Marines are known for their valor, you have neither valor nor dignity.'
Jay-Z has also called Buzbee a 'deplorable human being' and – possibly more hurtful for a successful attorney who likes to cut a dash – 'an ambulance chaser in a cheap suit'.
But Buzbee, who's made a fortune suing huge corporations and celebrities, relishes a battle.
Since quitting the Marines and launching his own law firm in 2000, 56-year-old Buzbee – who boasts a large tattoo of a shark on his arm – has amassed a huge fortune.
And unlike other class-action specialists, he isn't self-conscious about the vast sums his work earns him, happily posting pictures to social media variously on lavish vacations, smoking cigars, decked out in expensive jewelry and on his private jet.
He also owns a yacht and a 7,000-acre Texas ranch with his second wife Frances, who is 24 years his junior, and has homes in New York and Montana.
Rap moguls Sean 'Diddy' Combs, left, and Jay-Z attended the 2015 NBA All-Star basketball game in New York together
Jay-Z – real name Shawn Carter – was named in a civil lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old alongside Combs in 2000. He issued a statement denying the claims
His four children, all now adults, come from his first wife Zoe.
Buzbee reportedly gave Frances, the daughter of a wealthy Galveston family, a farm as a wedding present and named it after her. She now runs it as an animal rescue center.
In 2022, Buzbee put the five-bedroom, Tudor-style Houston mansion he'd shared with Zoe on the market for $27.5 million, a record for the city and only nine years after the couple had bought it for a reported $14 million.
'People always say trial lawyers are such liberals but I'm a big believer in capitalism,' he told the New York Times in 2010.
One of his first big wins came in 2001 when he represented offshore drilling workers who alleged their wages had been suppressed by their employers.
He won them a $75million judgment against drilling company Transocean Ltd and the $18million that came to his firm in fees allowed Buzbee to start amassing a fabulous collection of sports cars.
Oil provided another lucrative windfall for him in 2005 when he sued BP on behalf of 179 clients over a Texas refinery explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170. The oil giant paid out more than $2billion and Buzbee estimated he made nearly $100million from the litigation.
He led the charge against the UK oil company again, five years later, when BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf in 2010, dumping 134 million gallons of crude oil into the sea.
Buzbee sued the oil giant on behalf of 10,000 individuals and businesses who said they were impacted by the spill. BP paid out billions in settlements.
More recently, he has attracted greater attention for high-profile celebrity cases. In 2021, Buzbee filed a $750 million lawsuit against rapper Travis Scott on behalf of at least 125 victims of that year's Astroworld music festival in Houston, at which 10 people had died and hundreds were injured in a crowd surge during Scott's set.
Buzbee settled several consequent lawsuits with Scott and Live Nation, which produced the show.
This year he represented Los Angeles socialite Rebecca Grossman when she was accused of killing two brothers in a high speed hit-and-run. He was heavily criticized for trying to frame Grossman's lover, former MLB star Scott Erickson. Grossman was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
