JAY-Z‘s defamation case against Tony Buzbee is set to proceed to trial, thanks to a social media from the controversial attorney.
Buzbee represented the anonymous plaintiff who accused Hov and Diddy of raping her when she was 13 years old, but that lawsuit was voluntarily withdrawn earlier this month.
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The Roc Nation mogul, who has denied all allegations, first sued Buzbee last November, accusing him of defamation and extortion for bringing the suit against him.
In a tentative ruling on Tuesday (February 25), Judge Mark H. Epstein ruled that Jay’s defamation claim against Buzbee can proceed after the attorney made remarks on social media referring to his client as a “sexual assault survivor.”
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Buzbee also “liked” a post on X (formerly Twitter) which speculated that JAY-Z was one of the defendants in the lawsuit, before he was publicly named in an amendment to the suit.
“When someone says Doe is Carter, and [Buzbee] ‘likes’ it, it’s not unreasonable to infer that [Buzbee] has just affirmed that he’s right, that Doe is Carter,” Judge Epstein said, per Rolling Stone.
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The judge also said that JAY-Z would have to prove “actual malice” in Buzbee’s filing, unless he can prove the lawyer did not properly investigate the claims made by the woman.
“Not having done the investigation we’d all like one to do is not going to be enough to show actual malice, I know that,” Epstein said. “The concern I have is juxtaposing that with Mr. Buzbee’s statements that he was not going to bring a lawsuit until he had done a full investigation.
“I agree this is the hardest question of the case, the ‘actual malice’ question. If you say, ‘I’m not going to name names until I’ve done real investigating,’ and then you name a name, isn’t the implication that you did conduct a real investigation?
“And if you didn’t, is it okay? Is actual malice still not satisfied when I’m telling the public, ‘I did a real investigation and this guy engaged in child rape,’ and actually, I didn’t?”
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Epstein did, however, lean towards dismissing JAY-Z’s extortion claim against Buzbee. He has yet make a final ruling, saying that he needed more time to weigh up arguments from lawyers on both sides.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 26.
