As federal prosecutors pursue their sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, an enterprising personal injury attorney is filing an increasing drumbeat of civil suits against the music mogul. More than a dozen anonymous claims — many made by individuals who allege they were victimized when they were underage, including in one case a 10-year-old boy — allege sexual assault and rape over a span of decades. Combs has issued a sweeping denial, dismissing the “sickening” declarations as motivated by a “quick payday.”
But Tony Buzbee, who at this point professes to be representing more than 150 Combs accusers through his eponymous Houston-based firm, contends he’s just getting started. “We expect to be filing cases weekly naming Mr. Combs and others as defendants as we continue to gather evidence and prepare the filings,” he said in an Oct. 27 statement.
Buzbee is an outsized figure in the Lone Star legal world with a national reputation. More than a decade ago The New York Times described him as “a big, mean, ambitious, tenacious, fire-breathing Texas trial lawyer.” Locally, he’s known for spending $10 million of his own money on a failed Houston mayoral bid and rankling his neighborhood homeowners association in the ritzy River Oaks enclave by parking a Sherman M4A4 tank he won at auction in front of his property.
He made his fortune suing and often settling cases against gas giants, chemical firms and trucking companies. Prior to the Diddy docket, he helped a sizable group of women reach out-of-court agreements with NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson over sexual misconduct allegations. In recent years he’s also been in the news for successfully defending former Gov. Rick Perry against abuse-of-power accusations and unsuccessfully defending Los Angeles socialite Rebecca Grossman, who was convicted of second-degree murder.
Buzbee discussed his legal crusade against Combs at an Oct. 1 press conference held in the conference room of his 73rd-floor office near the top of the JPMorgan Chase Tower, the tallest building in Texas. Standing before a step-and-repeat printed with a hotline number for potential sexual assault clients to call, Buzbee promised that “we are going to follow this evidence wherever it takes us. We will find the silent accomplices. We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors.”
He claimed that his team had by that time already been contacted by more than 3,000 people about Combs and that a vetting process was underway by a task force that included a former detective from the Major Offenders Division of the Houston Police Department.
The press conference, hotline and Buzbee’s coordinated social media posts run counter to an assertion on his firm’s website, which avows that “we don’t advertise for cases.” His office previously announced it was looking for potential Astroworld claimants the day after the deadly tragedy at Travis Scott’s concert.
Buzbee provided details about the demographics of his purported cohort of Combs accusers, which then by his count totaled 120 people. He noted that more than two dozen of the individuals were minors when the alleged misconduct occurred and that the group’s gender breakdown is evenly divided. He also observed that the accusers are primarily Black and mostly from California, New York, Georgia and Florida — states where the putative misdeeds occurred, mostly at parties and auditions, in hotels and at private residences.
Buzbee explained that many of his new clients had police reports, medical records and other evidence to support their claims, including photos and videos, and that while each case is different, patterns have emerged, including the apparent deployment of Xylazine, or “tranq,” a sedative for horses. Pushing back against skepticism about the sheer scale of accusers by noting that “we’re talking about more than 25 years of this type of conduct,” he urged more individuals to come forward, citing “great strength in numbers.”
“Typically, the victim is lured into a situation where he or she is given a drink,” he said at the press conference. “Typically, that drink, as reported by these victims, is laced with something. Once that drink takes effect, the perpetrators perform all kinds of sexual acts on the victims, many times passing him or her around as other people watch and enjoy the show, and then leave the victim ashamed, confused, injured and wondering what happened when the victim reaches out. He or she is told not to say anything. Sometimes there are threats of physical violence or financial repercussions or bodily harm.”
Buzbee’s firm is working the cases in association with a California-based personal injury firm run by Andrew Van Arsdale, who has a history of pursuing sexual abuse cases against the Boy Scouts of America, as well as the Mormon and Catholic churches. (Arsdale has recently been canvassing for clients for litigation against former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, who pled not guilty on Oct. 25 to sex trafficking in New York federal court.)
Buzbee is aware that much of the public interest in this saga isn’t just in Combs or his victims but the potential for other famous figures to be exposed by it, as direct accomplices or complicit abettors. “The day will come when we will name names other than Sean Combs, and there’s a lot of names — it’s a long list already,” he promised.
Much of the job for attorneys like Buzbee, who declined to speak about his Combs-related work with The Hollywood Reporter, is to negotiate confidential financial pacts for accusers out of court, which the people paying them often regard as extortionate. Pugnacious private as well as public rhetoric can be a key part of the playbook. “I’m talking about the people that participated, encouraged it, egged it on,” he said on Oct. 1. “They know who they are. I call them the facilitators of foul play, willing participants in vile conduct.” Buzbee then added, with portent, “As we speak here there are a myriad of people who are very nervous.”