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Jay-Z Says Rape Accuser’s Attorney Edited Wikipedia Pages to Harm His Reputation
Amid a nasty feud with the lawyer who filed a rape lawsuit against him, the superstar now claims his legal foe ordered staffers to edit wikis as part of his "extortionate scheme."
Jay-Z has filed an unusual new allegation in his legal war with attorney Tony Buzbee, accusing the lawyer of ordering employees at his law firm to edit Wikipedia pages in an effort to damage the rapper’s reputation.
The new claim is the latest salvo in a bitter fight that started when Buzbee filed a shocking lawsuit accusing Jay-Z of raping an unnamed girl decades ago. Jay-Z vehemently denied the allegation, which has since been voluntarily dropped, and has blasted Buzbee for allegedly trying to extort him.
In an updated version of an earlier case against Buzbee and his client filed Monday (May 5), Jay-Z is adding an eyebrow-raising new claim: That the lawyer made sneaky edits to Wikipedia as part of his alleged plot to harm the rapper.
“In violation of Wikipedia’s rules, Buzbee directed his employees to edit Wikipedia pages to enhance Buzbee’s image and damage Mr. Carter’s and Roc Nation’s reputations,” Jay-Z’s attorneys write in the amended complaint. “Users with an IP address directly linked to the Buzbee Firm made over 100 positive edits to Buzbee’s Wikipedia page.”
The lawsuit does not elaborate on what exact edits were allegedly made to Wikipedia. Reps for Jay-Z did not immediately return a request for comment.
In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday, Buzbee strongly denied the new allegation and the rest of Jay-Z’s claims: “Most of the pleading is nonsensical. All of it is meritless.”
The case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” After just two months of heated litigation, Doe dropped her case without a settlement payment.
Weeks after the case was dropped, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee, accusing her of defamation and accusing both of malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing. The lawsuit called it an “evil conspiracy” against the rapper: “The extortion and abuse of Mr. Carter by Doe and her lawyers must stop.”
Buzbee and his client have denied the lawsuit’s allegations and moved to dismiss the case — arguing, among other things, that she cannot be sued for defamation over allegations made as part of a lawsuit.
Beyond the Wikipedia claims, Monday’s new complaint makes several other notable changes to the earlier lawsuit.
The new version of the case now also targets Antigone Curis, a New York attorney who served as co-counsel in the original rape lawsuit against Jay-Z. Naming Curis as a co-defendant, Jay-Z alleges that Buzbee “used Curis” because he himself was not admitted to practice law in Manhattan federal court — an issue that has since come to light in several of Buzbee’s cases against Combs in New York.
“It is clear that Curis joined the conspiracy to extort Mr. Carter, which was hatched in Alabama, and quickly became an integral part of the scheme by using her admission to the [Southern District of New York], weaponizing the civil justice system,” Jay-Z’s attorneys write in the new case.
The lawsuit also includes new claims about the alleged harm caused to Jay-Z by the rape accusation. It says Roc Nation lost contracts in the sports and entertainment space that would have generated at least $20 million; that Jay was personally denied a $55 million personal credit line; and that a company he’s associated with was denied a $115 million loan.
“At trial, plaintiff will present evidence demonstrating how the extortionate scheme, and the false complaint filed in New York, resulted in the loss of business opportunities to Mr. Carter [and] have served to preclude him from new business opportunities,” his attorneys write, before later adding: “Buzbee, Doe, and their co-conspirators must answer for all of this.”
