A federal judge in Galveston denied attorney Tony Buzbee's motion to dismiss a $25 million defamation lawsuit filed by Marcy Croft, the Mississippi attorney who represents Jay-Z's entertainment company Roc Nation, ruling that a jury could "reasonably infer" Buzbee defamed her in social media posts accusing her of illegally soliciting his former clients.
U.S. District Judge Vincent Brown's ruling is a significant early victory for Croft in a case that grew out of the long-running legal war between Buzbee and Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter. At the center of Croft's suit are Buzbee's social media posts accusing her of using agents to illegally solicit his former clients to bring lawsuits against him — claims her team says amount to falsely accusing her of criminal conduct. The judge's finding that defamation can be "reasonably inferred" is not a final verdict, but it clears the way for the case to proceed toward discovery and trial.
Buzbee, a prominent Houston attorney, called the lawsuit "completely frivolous" and said it would "massively backfire" on Croft. Her lawyer, Gregg Costa of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said in a statement that they looked forward to "holding the defendants accountable for the reputational damage they caused to a distinguished and honorable lawyer." Croft is seeking at least $25 million in damages.
The ruling marks a turning point in a two-year saga that began when Buzbee sued Jay-Z in Manhattan federal court on behalf of an anonymous woman who claimed she was drugged and raped by Carter and Sean "Diddy" Combs at an afterparty for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Carter and Combs denied the allegations, and the plaintiff later withdrew the suit. That case spawned a cascade of satellite litigation: Buzbee sued Croft, Roc Nation and Carter's lawyers at Quinn Emanuel in Texas, alleging they used "shadowy operatives" to turn his former clients against him — a case dismissed in June 2026 for lack of jurisdiction. Jay-Z, meanwhile, filed his own defamation and malicious prosecution suit against Buzbee in New York federal court, arguing the attorney pursued claims he knew were baseless to extract a settlement.
Buzbee's exposure is now growing on two fronts at once. In California, the woman whose rape allegation started it all has recanted in a sworn declaration, saying she never met Jay-Z — a development Jay-Z's team is using to try to revive its dismissed extortion case. And in Texas, Buzbee must now answer Croft's defamation claims in court rather than making them disappear on paper. The Galveston ruling signals that his aggressive public posture during the Carter litigation may carry a steep price.