An anonymous “celebrity” has filed a civil racketeering lawsuit Tony Buzzbeea Texas attorney representing more than 100 alleged abuse victims of Sean “Diddy” Combs — claiming the attorney is threatening to file a lawsuit containing “wildly false horrific allegations” if the anonymous bigwig doesn't pay up.
In a lawsuit filed Monday (November 18) in Los Angeles, attorneys for a “high-profile” public figure identified only as “John Doe” allege that Buzbee is “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums of money from him” by threatening to “release completely fabricated and malicious accusations of sexual assault.”
“This is extortion in the books,” write the celebrity's lawyers, who are from the prominent Quinn Emanuel law firm. “Buzbee pretends to speak truth to power, but that's far from the truth.”
Buzbee allegedly contacted the man earlier this month with “stupid” false claims: That he had “raped several minors, male and female, who had been drugged at a party held by Combs.” If the celebrity did not agree to a “confidential mediation,” Buzbee reportedly warned he would “take a different course.”
“Plaintiff is currently facing a gun to his head,” the lawsuit states. “Either you repeatedly pay an exorbitant amount of money … or face the threat of an untold number of civil lawsuits and financial and personal ruin.”
In a statement to Bulletin board On Monday, Buzbee said he and his company “will not allow the powerful and their money-making lawyers to intimidate or silence sex survivors” and warned that a lawsuit against the anonymous plaintiff is imminent.
“It is apparent that the frivolous lawsuit filed against my company is an aggressive attempt to intimidate or silence me and ultimately my clients,” Buzbee wrote. “This effort is a gross miscalculation. I am a US Marine. I will not be silenced or intimidated. Neither do my clients. Since our professional efforts to resolve have apparently failed, we will disclose the demand letters we sent at the time we filed suit.”
Combs has faced a flood of abuse allegations over the past year, beginning with civil lawsuits and followed by a federal indictment in September in which prosecutors allege he ran an extensive criminal enterprise for years aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.”
Weeks after the indictment, Buzbee joined the controversy by holding a news conference in which he claimed to represent 120 people who had been victimized by Combs and threatened a flood of lawsuits. He has since filed more than a dozen such lawsuits, all on behalf of anonymous Doe plaintiffs.
At the time, Buzbee specifically warned that he would name others: “We will expose the factors that allowed this behavior behind closed doors.” And later, in an interview with TMZhe said several such celebrities had agreed to private terms to remain anonymous.
In Monday's complaint, the unnamed celebrity said those efforts represented a “shakedown” and a “cynical extortion scheme” — one in which Buzbee “takes advantage of the bravery of those victims who came forward” against Combs to win over settlements by “innocent celebrities. politicians and businessmen”.
“Defendants devised a scheme to obtain payments through the use of coercive threats from anyone with ties to Combs — no matter how remote,” the unnamed plaintiff's attorneys wrote. “The defendants claim to be investigating the facts, but the reality is that they are finding deep pockets and trying to tar them all with the same brush.”
The unusual episode — a mysterious celebrity plaintiff claiming they're being blackmailed with baseless allegations of abuse — echoes a similar incident last month involving Garth Brooks. In that case, Brooks filed an anonymous lawsuit as “John Doe” seeking a federal court order to block publication of the allegations. However, the accuser eventually filed suit against Brooks in a separate court weeks later.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/diddy-accuser-lawyer-extortion-lawsuit-unnamed-celebrity/
