October 3, 2024 • 23 mins
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee announced the pending civil lawsuits during a press conference Tuesday. The attorney revealed he's representing 120 accusers, who are bringing allegations of "violent sexual assault or rape," "facilitated sex with a controlled substance," "dissemination of video recordings" and "sexual abuse of minors" against the embattled music mogul, among other offenses.
"We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors," Buzbee said. "We will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I got to get to the world of pop culture
and entertainment. Even though we can't call us entertaining because
once again there's new allegations against Sean P.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Diddy Combs.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
A Texas attorney says he now represents get this, one
hundred and twenty alleged victims, male and female, adults and children,
whose allegations span more than thirty years. The accounts of
the alleged victims have not been fully vetted, but their
claims involved drug fueled sexual assaults, similar to what the
(00:36):
FEDS described in their criminal indictment of the music mogul did.
He's currently sitting in a federal jail awaiting trial on
sex trafficking, racketeering, and conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty
to all charges, and his attorney once again stated that
his client emphatically denies any claimed that he sexually abused anyone.
End quote. Here's a bottom line. He looked for bail once,
(00:57):
couldn't get it, look for it twice, couldn't get it.
Hide new lawyers, and it's appealing again to try and
get himself bail. We don't know whether that's gonna be
successful or not, but people are labeling it highly unlikely.
I've said before, Diddy's in the world the trouble, believe
it or not. On a day like today, he ain't
even a story. When you got one hundred and twenty
(01:19):
people that are going to levy allegations against him, his
situation looks too daunting to even comprehend anything positive about it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But it's also so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That you know there's more bodies that's gonna fall. See
right now where we have to start thinking about. I
hate to do this, I swear to you, and that's
why I'm gonna mention no names, ain't gonna show no faces,
no pictures. I ain't doing all of this. Let me
say this, everybody's been around them. I'm not talking about
(02:01):
taking a picture with him like I did at a
Golden State Worries game. I'm not talking about showing up
to some party and then you find out it was
a ditty party.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I'm talking about people who were part of his crew,
who are around them a lot, who were complicit somehow
in some way to me, and I'm just guessing. I'll
find out whether it's factual or not with my next guest.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
But I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You don't sit up there and have a press conference
like my guest in a couple of minutes did yesterday
and announced that you got one hundred and twenty clients.
What one hundred and twenty separate allegations? And all you
looking for is the d that's already behind balls. I mean,
(02:53):
we're talking about men, women, and children. We're talking about
public figure, private figures, talking about celebrities and private business people.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
We're talking about conglomerates.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Hell, for all, we know, he's gonna hold hotels accountable
when some of these freak offs happened. This has gotten
so so bad, so bad, and you know, pundits are
gonna come out of the worlds. The ain't talking about myself.
I'm not talking about me. But I just saw some
(03:27):
report where Wendy Williams came out because remember she threw
shade on Diddy in the late nineties.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And then had him.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
As a guest on her show a little less than
ten years ago and was taken aback. If you go
back and you look at the footage and you see
her face and she's talking about a sixteen year old
son was in the back in the green room and
Diddy was like, Oh, yeah, you talk about talk about him. Yeah,
I just met him, and and and Wendy was taken
aback by that. I mean, this is a mess. It's
(03:59):
a mess y'all. All I'm gonna say is this. I
hope no one innocent gets implicated and has to be
raped through the colds or run through the ringer just
because of an association with him. I'm not root for
anybody that's guilty of any of this shit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
But if you innocent and you didn't do anything, I'm
praying and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Hoping that you're not implicated in any way forcing my
next guest to come after you.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I really really hope that ain't the case.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But my next guest ain't playing games, and he's got
a reputation that proves he doesn't play games. He's been
a lawyer for thirty plus years. This ain't the first
big case he had, And I'm just saying, if I'm
(05:02):
guilty and of this stuff, anybody associated with Diddy in.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That regard, good luck with that. Because this man.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Right here then I'm about to introduce to you. He's
here to tell you he's coming. He's coming joining me
now is the man who is representing the more than
one hundred men and women who plan the file civil
suits against Sean Diddy comes Tony Busby, who's representing about
(05:36):
one hundred and twenty people, held a press conference yesterday
at his firm in Houston, Texas. Some of the case
they intend the file will center around allegations of sexual assault, rape,
facilitating sex with the controlled substance, dissemination of video recordings,
and sexual abuse of minors, just to name a few.
Please welcome to the show, mister Tony Buzzby. Good afternoon, Tony.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
How are you good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Thank you for your time. So let's get right into it.
How long have you been working on these potential suits
against Peed Diddy?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Coombes, my co counsel who sent me the cases, has
been working on this for about six months. He got
me involved about two weeks ago actually, and so I
started talking to some of these victims and deciding whether
I wanted to become involved in this case.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Some of the things that I was told by these
folks that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Are very compelling, some of which I shared with the
public yesterday. So for me, it's been about two weeks
when I announced about ten days ago that I was
going to join these cases and service lead counsel. The
call volume went up to about thirty two hundred calls.
And so far as you as you've laid out, we
have one hundred and twenty clients that are prepared to
(06:41):
file suit.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
What made you ultimately decide you wanted to get involved
in that? You said it just came to your attention
a couple of weeks ago. What was the deciding fact
that that made you want to get involved?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Talking to these folks and reviewing the indictment, and it
was very clear that the conduct that these people were
talking about was very consistent with what the indictment lays out.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And then.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You just hearing their voices and seeing their faces, and
I have to do a credibility check myself and decide
if this is something that I want to be involved in.
And you know, this is and I see this really
as God's work.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I think.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
You know, obviously Seawan Combs is arrested anddicted and his
bail has been denied, But there's more to it than that.
This is conduct that's went on for more than twenty
five years. These people who we represent are from more
than twenty five states. These are people whose ages range
from is as young as nine years old up until
(07:41):
people in their thirties. As you as you said, these
are women and men. You know, the scope of this
is really it's unfathomable that this could go on for
so long. And you know, I said yesterday, this is
this is the secret in the entertainment industry that that
really wasn't a secret. And I think people are shocked
(08:01):
to learn that this went on for so long and
some of the things that people say happened to them.
And I think because of the indictment, because the federal
government got involved. I think because the arrest and because
of the denial of vail really gave people, you know,
really embolden people to step forward and be counted and
tell their stories.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's interesting because before I get to additional questions, you
talked about vetting them yourself and what have you? One
would ask, the suspicious minds would ask, two weeks is
that enough vetting that could have?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Possibly?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Is that enough time to have vetted all of these
people to the point where you feel comfortable and secure
in representing them. What do you say as a response
to cynics with such questions?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Now there's all you know better than me.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
There's always cynics, and there's always people that like to
sit back and criticize, and you know, that's just the
nature of the business. And you know, I've been in
this business for almost thirty years. I would say that
we have more than ninety people who did the initial
screening and vetting. Then we have Houston Police Department personnel
(09:05):
who also are part of the vetting process. Then we
have a team of lawyers that are also a part
of that. And then you know, I've personally spoken to
many of these folks myself, and then ultimately, as we
start to file the case, I will talk to each
one of these people just to make sure one like
because you know, it's a high profile case. It's just
like you know other cases I've been involved in. If
I put my brand on it, I'm going to make
(09:27):
sure that it's something that that I feel comfortable with
and that I'm fully behind, because you know, these cases
are tough enough themselves. You know, typically it comes down
to circumstantial evidence, corroborating evidence from witnesses that saw this
or that, and then it comes down to the word
of the victim versus the words of the various perpetrators.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
What impact did the federal indictment have on a volume
of suits you're now intending the file.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I think it had a big impact.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I think the original impact probably was the Cassie situation
and the video that was released. I think it was
known that there was a federal investigation going forward. There
had been several lawsuits, and there's been more. I think
there's been as many as seven so far against Sean
Cones and other people, and then the indictment, the arrest,
(10:18):
and then the denial of bail, and then of course
US announcing that, look, there are a lot of people
that intend to pursue these cases.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Please come forward.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
If you're a witness, please come forward, If you have evidence,
please come forward. I think that was instrumental in what
we're seeing now. Ever since, I mean, in twenty four hours,
we've received twelve thousand calls, if you can believe that. Now,
I don't know if that's going.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To twelve thousand calls. Yes, sir, you said twelve thousand calls.
You've received twelve thousand calls.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Now, that doesn't mean twelve thousand people who claim to
be victimized. It just means twelve thousand people have called
this line that we published yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Obviously, as you know, there's going.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
To be people crank malls and people that with foolishness
and people with malcontent. But we are sifting through that
and trying to, you know, make sure that we identify
and vet people that have real claims, legitimate credible claims.
Right now, you know, we're talking about one hundred and
twenty people from twenty five different states for conduct that
(11:22):
occurred over twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Twenty five different twenty five different states.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Is that would not cities? You said, twenty five different states?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you know a lot of these
parties obviously took place in Los Angeles, New York, Manhattan
or the Hamptons and Miami, and a lot of these
people were flown in these and this wasn't a secret.
I mean, it was known that that people were being
flown in for these parties. People we're being paid cash
to attend these parties. People were being identified at clubs
(11:54):
or at concerts or on the street even and invited
to these parties. You have that that group of people
that are involved, and then you have another group and
maybe this is the more sinister situation. Where you know,
young people with stars in their eyes, wanting to break
into the entertainment industry, with promises of stardom, who are
(12:17):
taken advantage of, in some cases allegedly drugged and abused
and basically just left behind. You know, you know, with
shame and guilt. You know, it's what I'm looking at. Obviously,
you know, you have an individual who has been indicted
and arrested and whose bail has been denied, and obviously
(12:38):
that's he's obviously a target of this. But but I'm
looking more in addition to that, of course, who else
was involved, What venues were involved?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
What what?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
What's Who sponsored some of this conduct, Who benefited from this,
who profited from this? Who was there in the room,
who encouraged this, facilitated this, didn't say a word about it,
kept it kept USh hush. I mean, you can only
imagine the number of entities and individuals that can potentially
be complicit.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
In all this, mister Buzzby, And I'm getting near it.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I was going right there, because you talk about the
complicitness of those others that may have been involved. I
want to know of the survivors, the accusers, whatever word
is appropriate, do they talk about and have they talked
about Diddy Combs or have they named names and provided
names of other dare I say, co conspirators in all
(13:33):
of this? What kind of what can you tell us
on that front?
Speaker 4 (13:37):
We have a long list of names, and obviously this
is a very sensitive situation. The worst thing we could
do is name somebody who was involved or allegedly involved
and not have our ducks in a row. I'm not
going to do that. I'm not going to be involved
in ruin by making a mistake. You know, obviously a
(14:02):
lot of this is hard to corroborate. I mean, you're
talking about a situation with somebody's you know, who thinks
that all their dreams are about to come true. They're
there with somebody who's a megastar and other stars in
the room, and they think all kinds of good things
are going to happen to them, and probably the worst
thing that could happen to them happens. But yes, there
(14:23):
are people who owned private homes, people who own private venues,
people that were in the room, people that I'm going
to allege knew what was going on and either participated
in it, encouraged it, egged it, on if you will
or somehow benefited from it. And that's going to be
different for every case. I mean, these are individual cases
(14:47):
at different points in time, with different people involved.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
And there'll be different defendants in each case.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Without naming names, because certainly I appreciate you being responsible enough,
and there I say, I would have been responsible enough
to say I'm not going to even get it to
names of allegations. I wouldn't put that out there. But
may I ask you, from a general perspective or a
generic perspective, are these alleged co conspirators? Are they public figures?
(15:13):
Are they well known people in Hollywood? In the music industry?
Are they people who worked for p Diddy Combs? Could
you be specific in that regard.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I would say yes to all the above. Yeah, people,
Yes to all of the above. All the above.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
People that names that you would know, some people's names
you wouldn't know. But are people that are in management
or executive positions, people that were benefiting from this culture
that was created, People that were there knowing that this
was going to happen, people that actually participated venues that
knew it was going on. I mean, just think about it,
just one aspect of this. You know, typically when when
(15:52):
an entertainer of the stature that that P.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Diddy was at one.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Point, he rents out a hotel hell, the typically would
run out the entire floor and just just a revolving
door of people showing up at the front desk whose
names weren't being taken down, who were just escorted right
up to the floor, and things are happening up there.
I mean, it's hard to turn a blind eye, you know,
if you have any common sense whatsoever, you know what's
going on. People that aren't from for instance, New York City,
(16:20):
that are being flown in from Los Angeles, you know, five, ten,
fifteen at a time, who are being paid in cash
to attend these various events.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That are occurring.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
People that are that are identified in the crowd of
a show and asked to come backstage and then they're
risks off to some other party and they find themselves
in the morning, you know, not knowing what had happened,
because they've been drugged and they're they're injured, and they're
they're feeling shameful and you know, blaming themselves. I mean,
you can only imagine the various individual scenarios, but the
common thing throughout this, at least from from from what
(16:52):
I've gathered, is there's always some sort of drug involved.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
There's always some sort.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Of of drink that that I believe we'll be able
to show was spiked in some way with some kind
of drug that that caused these individuals not to really
be able to fight back, perhaps as much as they
might have. And then they wake up not knowing what
had happened to them other than they know that that
that they're injured in their private areas, and there many
(17:20):
of them went to seek medical treatment. Uh, some of
them were drug tested when they did so. I mean
there's several of these individuals who their drug test came
back with some weird I hadn't even heard of this.
You know, I own a farm, and I guess maybe
my branch manager knows what this is. But a horse tranquilizer.
You know, it's called trank.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I'd never heard of horse, a horse tranquilizer.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Horse tranquilizer. I mean, it's just ridiculous. So you just
outrageous when you think about it. But you know, how
did this get into these people's bloodstream? How did how
was you know? It's just I think I think we're
just now scratching the surface of this. You know, obviously
all of this, these are allegations. You know that, even
the indictment, those are allegations that the government must prove.
(18:04):
But you have a lot of people coming forward saying
the same thing. All of it is very similar. And
you know, you have one of the things I've said,
and I think it's true. You have a lot of
people right now out there who are watching this happen.
We are probably scrubbing their social media, We're probably searching
(18:25):
their memories, who are probably deleting texts and data from
their phones and are probably very nervous right now, and
would I would think they should be.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I'm not going to get in too much to the
nine year old because that that's a child.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There's no explanation for that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Zero, Okay, But when you talk about some of these survivors,
you hear about half of them are men, half of women.
Twenty five were minors at the time of the alleged incidents.
Number one, is that true? And number two, when strictly
speaking about the adults, what about those who would say,
(19:05):
what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
If they were flown in they were quote unquote sex workers.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
They knew what they were getting into. It was complicit.
It might be reprehensible in some people's eyes, but as
Diddy's lawyer said on television weeks ago, it's one thing
to be unethical, it's another thing to be illegal. And
it wasn't illegal because they were given the impression that
it was adult consent involved. What does mister Tony Buzby
(19:31):
say to that.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think every case stands on its own merit. I think,
you know, I could I could imagine a scenario with
somebody was either through a broker or maybe a staff
member who went and collected individuals, promised them payment to
come and be you know, you all heard of atmosphere
girls or people to attend parties for the atmosphere, and
(19:54):
then those people to be taken advantage of and not
being allowed to leave and being coursed to do things
that perhaps they didn't they would have to do. I
don't think that's outside the bounds of imagination, but I
will say that with regard to a minor, when that's involved,
and it doesn't matter whether there's payment and consent or
attempted consent, Obviously, under the law, you cannot consent to
(20:15):
that kind of conduct when you're a minor. And I'm
not suggesting that the one hundred and twenty people here
are people that were flown in.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I'm just suggesting that that's what they report.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Most of the people that I represent were not those
people that were recruited and flown in. Most of them
are people who were either trying to break into the
business or who were identified, you know, were not you know,
part of some group that would typically be flown in anywhere.
They were just people that were invited to parties because
they were either on the street, in a club, at
(20:47):
a bar, at a hotel lobby.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I mean, you name it.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Every scenario you can think of is probably probably fits
the bill. With these one hundred and twenty some odd people, what.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Do you expect to stop following these suits.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I'm hoping to file.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I wanted to do it in a week, but to
be realistic, I said thirty days. But I expect within
thirty days we'll start filing individual cases, and we'll continue
to file individual cases, and you know, will pursue them aggressively.
And obviously it's a herculean task when you're dealing with
a lot of different individuals with each of them has
a different case, different evidence, different defendants, different venue, different
(21:22):
law that applies. So it's a tough task, but you
know it's an important task because I look.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Forward to it.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Your thoughts are your words to people who would say, well,
you had a press conference yesterday and it was very,
very dramatic. There's over one hundred and twenty cases that
you're going to aim in the direction of p Diddy Combs,
and you're still searching for additional evidence, et cetera, et cetera.
So the argument will be made that you don't really
have a lock solid case against this man at this
(21:52):
particular moment in time. They would say, why have the
press conference at all at this particular juncture as you
did yesterday?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
To that, you say, what, sir.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
To that, I say, you know, could I file the
cases against Shawncombs right now?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, But I want to make sure I capture a
wide net and capture everybody involved. And that's what I'm
That's what I'm trying to do. And part of the
part of the purpose of the press conference was to
encourage people that witnessed some of these events to come forward,
and that's happening now, because I want to make sure
when we file the case that we don't just you know,
I want to say it like this. You know, Shawn Combs,
(22:25):
you know, obviously has a lot of trouble on his
plate right now, and you know he ain't going anywhere.
I want to make sure that that that anyone that
facilitated this, egged it on, participated, benefited from, profited from
they're involved too, because that's really that's really what needs
to happen here.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It happened, it happens in other cases like that.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
You want to make sure that you include everyone, especially
those that enabled and were complicit.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So, Tony Buzby, to close this interview, you're saying, and
I want to make sure I'm quoting you accurately, Sean
Did is not the only person you're after. You're after
anyone who was involved, anyone who was complicit, public figure,
private figure, business, folks, industries, et cetera. You don't give
a damn who it is. You want them all.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's what you're here to do.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Is that correct? Thank you summed it up perfectly. Yes,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Tony Busby with the Buzzby Law Firm based out of Houston, Texas,
right here on the stephen A.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Smith Show.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Over the digital it was a YouTube and of course
iHeart radio. Tony Buzby, thank you so much for your
time and your expertise. Really really appreciate it, and thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Thank you, sir,
I got to get to the world of pop culture
and entertainment. Even though we can't call us entertaining because
once again there's new allegations against Sean P.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Diddy Combs.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
A Texas attorney says he now represents get this, one
hundred and twenty alleged victims, male and female, adults and children,
whose allegations span more than thirty years. The accounts of
the alleged victims have not been fully vetted, but their
claims involved drug fueled sexual assaults, similar to what the
(00:36):
FEDS described in their criminal indictment of the music mogul did.
He's currently sitting in a federal jail awaiting trial on
sex trafficking, racketeering, and conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty
to all charges, and his attorney once again stated that
his client emphatically denies any claimed that he sexually abused anyone.
End quote. Here's a bottom line. He looked for bail once,
(00:57):
couldn't get it, look for it twice, couldn't get it.
Hide new lawyers, and it's appealing again to try and
get himself bail. We don't know whether that's gonna be
successful or not, but people are labeling it highly unlikely.
I've said before, Diddy's in the world the trouble, believe
it or not. On a day like today, he ain't
even a story. When you got one hundred and twenty
(01:19):
people that are going to levy allegations against him, his
situation looks too daunting to even comprehend anything positive about it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But it's also so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That you know there's more bodies that's gonna fall. See
right now where we have to start thinking about. I
hate to do this, I swear to you, and that's
why I'm gonna mention no names, ain't gonna show no faces,
no pictures. I ain't doing all of this. Let me
say this, everybody's been around them. I'm not talking about
(02:01):
taking a picture with him like I did at a
Golden State Worries game. I'm not talking about showing up
to some party and then you find out it was
a ditty party.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I'm talking about people who were part of his crew,
who are around them a lot, who were complicit somehow
in some way to me, and I'm just guessing. I'll
find out whether it's factual or not with my next guest.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
But I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You don't sit up there and have a press conference
like my guest in a couple of minutes did yesterday
and announced that you got one hundred and twenty clients.
What one hundred and twenty separate allegations? And all you
looking for is the d that's already behind balls. I mean,
(02:53):
we're talking about men, women, and children. We're talking about
public figure, private figures, talking about celebrities and private business people.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
We're talking about conglomerates.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Hell, for all, we know, he's gonna hold hotels accountable
when some of these freak offs happened. This has gotten
so so bad, so bad, and you know, pundits are
gonna come out of the worlds. The ain't talking about myself.
I'm not talking about me. But I just saw some
(03:27):
report where Wendy Williams came out because remember she threw
shade on Diddy in the late nineties.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And then had him.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
As a guest on her show a little less than
ten years ago and was taken aback. If you go
back and you look at the footage and you see
her face and she's talking about a sixteen year old
son was in the back in the green room and
Diddy was like, Oh, yeah, you talk about talk about him. Yeah,
I just met him, and and and Wendy was taken
aback by that. I mean, this is a mess. It's
(03:59):
a mess y'all. All I'm gonna say is this. I
hope no one innocent gets implicated and has to be
raped through the colds or run through the ringer just
because of an association with him. I'm not root for
anybody that's guilty of any of this shit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
But if you innocent and you didn't do anything, I'm
praying and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Hoping that you're not implicated in any way forcing my
next guest to come after you.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I really really hope that ain't the case.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But my next guest ain't playing games, and he's got
a reputation that proves he doesn't play games. He's been
a lawyer for thirty plus years. This ain't the first
big case he had, And I'm just saying, if I'm
(05:02):
guilty and of this stuff, anybody associated with Diddy in.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That regard, good luck with that. Because this man.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Right here then I'm about to introduce to you. He's
here to tell you he's coming. He's coming joining me
now is the man who is representing the more than
one hundred men and women who plan the file civil
suits against Sean Diddy comes Tony Busby, who's representing about
(05:36):
one hundred and twenty people, held a press conference yesterday
at his firm in Houston, Texas. Some of the case
they intend the file will center around allegations of sexual assault, rape,
facilitating sex with the controlled substance, dissemination of video recordings,
and sexual abuse of minors, just to name a few.
Please welcome to the show, mister Tony Buzzby. Good afternoon, Tony.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
How are you good? How are you?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Thank you for your time. So let's get right into it.
How long have you been working on these potential suits
against Peed Diddy?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Coombes, my co counsel who sent me the cases, has
been working on this for about six months. He got
me involved about two weeks ago actually, and so I
started talking to some of these victims and deciding whether
I wanted to become involved in this case.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Some of the things that I was told by these
folks that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Are very compelling, some of which I shared with the
public yesterday. So for me, it's been about two weeks
when I announced about ten days ago that I was
going to join these cases and service lead counsel. The
call volume went up to about thirty two hundred calls.
And so far as you as you've laid out, we
have one hundred and twenty clients that are prepared to
(06:41):
file suit.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
What made you ultimately decide you wanted to get involved
in that? You said it just came to your attention
a couple of weeks ago. What was the deciding fact
that that made you want to get involved?
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Talking to these folks and reviewing the indictment, and it
was very clear that the conduct that these people were
talking about was very consistent with what the indictment lays out.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And then.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You just hearing their voices and seeing their faces, and
I have to do a credibility check myself and decide
if this is something that I want to be involved in.
And you know, this is and I see this really
as God's work.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I think.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
You know, obviously Seawan Combs is arrested anddicted and his
bail has been denied, But there's more to it than that.
This is conduct that's went on for more than twenty
five years. These people who we represent are from more
than twenty five states. These are people whose ages range
from is as young as nine years old up until
(07:41):
people in their thirties. As you as you said, these
are women and men. You know, the scope of this
is really it's unfathomable that this could go on for
so long. And you know, I said yesterday, this is
this is the secret in the entertainment industry that that
really wasn't a secret. And I think people are shocked
(08:01):
to learn that this went on for so long and
some of the things that people say happened to them.
And I think because of the indictment, because the federal
government got involved. I think because the arrest and because
of the denial of vail really gave people, you know,
really embolden people to step forward and be counted and
tell their stories.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's interesting because before I get to additional questions, you
talked about vetting them yourself and what have you? One
would ask, the suspicious minds would ask, two weeks is
that enough vetting that could have?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Possibly?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Is that enough time to have vetted all of these
people to the point where you feel comfortable and secure
in representing them. What do you say as a response
to cynics with such questions?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Now there's all you know better than me.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
There's always cynics, and there's always people that like to
sit back and criticize, and you know, that's just the
nature of the business. And you know, I've been in
this business for almost thirty years. I would say that
we have more than ninety people who did the initial
screening and vetting. Then we have Houston Police Department personnel
(09:05):
who also are part of the vetting process. Then we
have a team of lawyers that are also a part
of that. And then you know, I've personally spoken to
many of these folks myself, and then ultimately, as we
start to file the case, I will talk to each
one of these people just to make sure one like
because you know, it's a high profile case. It's just
like you know other cases I've been involved in. If
I put my brand on it, I'm going to make
(09:27):
sure that it's something that that I feel comfortable with
and that I'm fully behind, because you know, these cases
are tough enough themselves. You know, typically it comes down
to circumstantial evidence, corroborating evidence from witnesses that saw this
or that, and then it comes down to the word
of the victim versus the words of the various perpetrators.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
What impact did the federal indictment have on a volume
of suits you're now intending the file.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I think it had a big impact.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I think the original impact probably was the Cassie situation
and the video that was released. I think it was
known that there was a federal investigation going forward. There
had been several lawsuits, and there's been more. I think
there's been as many as seven so far against Sean
Cones and other people, and then the indictment, the arrest,
(10:18):
and then the denial of bail, and then of course
US announcing that, look, there are a lot of people
that intend to pursue these cases.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Please come forward.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
If you're a witness, please come forward, If you have evidence,
please come forward. I think that was instrumental in what
we're seeing now. Ever since, I mean, in twenty four hours,
we've received twelve thousand calls, if you can believe that. Now,
I don't know if that's going.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To twelve thousand calls. Yes, sir, you said twelve thousand calls.
You've received twelve thousand calls.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Now, that doesn't mean twelve thousand people who claim to
be victimized. It just means twelve thousand people have called
this line that we published yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Obviously, as you know, there's going.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
To be people crank malls and people that with foolishness
and people with malcontent. But we are sifting through that
and trying to, you know, make sure that we identify
and vet people that have real claims, legitimate credible claims.
Right now, you know, we're talking about one hundred and
twenty people from twenty five different states for conduct that
(11:22):
occurred over twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Twenty five different twenty five different states.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Is that would not cities? You said, twenty five different states?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you know a lot of these
parties obviously took place in Los Angeles, New York, Manhattan
or the Hamptons and Miami, and a lot of these
people were flown in these and this wasn't a secret.
I mean, it was known that that people were being
flown in for these parties. People we're being paid cash
to attend these parties. People were being identified at clubs
(11:54):
or at concerts or on the street even and invited
to these parties. You have that that group of people
that are involved, and then you have another group and
maybe this is the more sinister situation. Where you know,
young people with stars in their eyes, wanting to break
into the entertainment industry, with promises of stardom, who are
(12:17):
taken advantage of, in some cases allegedly drugged and abused
and basically just left behind. You know, you know, with
shame and guilt. You know, it's what I'm looking at. Obviously,
you know, you have an individual who has been indicted
and arrested and whose bail has been denied, and obviously
(12:38):
that's he's obviously a target of this. But but I'm
looking more in addition to that, of course, who else
was involved, What venues were involved?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
What what?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
What's Who sponsored some of this conduct, Who benefited from this,
who profited from this? Who was there in the room,
who encouraged this, facilitated this, didn't say a word about it,
kept it kept USh hush. I mean, you can only
imagine the number of entities and individuals that can potentially
be complicit.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
In all this, mister Buzzby, And I'm getting near it.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I was going right there, because you talk about the
complicitness of those others that may have been involved. I
want to know of the survivors, the accusers, whatever word
is appropriate, do they talk about and have they talked
about Diddy Combs or have they named names and provided
names of other dare I say, co conspirators in all
(13:33):
of this? What kind of what can you tell us
on that front?
Speaker 4 (13:37):
We have a long list of names, and obviously this
is a very sensitive situation. The worst thing we could
do is name somebody who was involved or allegedly involved
and not have our ducks in a row. I'm not
going to do that. I'm not going to be involved
in ruin by making a mistake. You know, obviously a
(14:02):
lot of this is hard to corroborate. I mean, you're
talking about a situation with somebody's you know, who thinks
that all their dreams are about to come true. They're
there with somebody who's a megastar and other stars in
the room, and they think all kinds of good things
are going to happen to them, and probably the worst
thing that could happen to them happens. But yes, there
(14:23):
are people who owned private homes, people who own private venues,
people that were in the room, people that I'm going
to allege knew what was going on and either participated
in it, encouraged it, egged it, on if you will
or somehow benefited from it. And that's going to be
different for every case. I mean, these are individual cases
(14:47):
at different points in time, with different people involved.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
And there'll be different defendants in each case.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Without naming names, because certainly I appreciate you being responsible enough,
and there I say, I would have been responsible enough
to say I'm not going to even get it to
names of allegations. I wouldn't put that out there. But
may I ask you, from a general perspective or a
generic perspective, are these alleged co conspirators? Are they public figures?
(15:13):
Are they well known people in Hollywood? In the music industry?
Are they people who worked for p Diddy Combs? Could
you be specific in that regard.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I would say yes to all the above. Yeah, people,
Yes to all of the above. All the above.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
People that names that you would know, some people's names
you wouldn't know. But are people that are in management
or executive positions, people that were benefiting from this culture
that was created, People that were there knowing that this
was going to happen, people that actually participated venues that
knew it was going on. I mean, just think about it,
just one aspect of this. You know, typically when when
(15:52):
an entertainer of the stature that that P.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Diddy was at one.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Point, he rents out a hotel hell, the typically would
run out the entire floor and just just a revolving
door of people showing up at the front desk whose
names weren't being taken down, who were just escorted right
up to the floor, and things are happening up there.
I mean, it's hard to turn a blind eye, you know,
if you have any common sense whatsoever, you know what's
going on. People that aren't from for instance, New York City,
(16:20):
that are being flown in from Los Angeles, you know, five, ten,
fifteen at a time, who are being paid in cash
to attend these various events.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That are occurring.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
People that are that are identified in the crowd of
a show and asked to come backstage and then they're
risks off to some other party and they find themselves
in the morning, you know, not knowing what had happened,
because they've been drugged and they're they're injured, and they're
they're feeling shameful and you know, blaming themselves. I mean,
you can only imagine the various individual scenarios, but the
common thing throughout this, at least from from from what
(16:52):
I've gathered, is there's always some sort of drug involved.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
There's always some sort.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Of of drink that that I believe we'll be able
to show was spiked in some way with some kind
of drug that that caused these individuals not to really
be able to fight back, perhaps as much as they
might have. And then they wake up not knowing what
had happened to them other than they know that that
that they're injured in their private areas, and there many
(17:20):
of them went to seek medical treatment. Uh, some of
them were drug tested when they did so. I mean
there's several of these individuals who their drug test came
back with some weird I hadn't even heard of this.
You know, I own a farm, and I guess maybe
my branch manager knows what this is. But a horse tranquilizer.
You know, it's called trank.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I'd never heard of horse, a horse tranquilizer.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Horse tranquilizer. I mean, it's just ridiculous. So you just
outrageous when you think about it. But you know, how
did this get into these people's bloodstream? How did how
was you know? It's just I think I think we're
just now scratching the surface of this. You know, obviously
all of this, these are allegations. You know that, even
the indictment, those are allegations that the government must prove.
(18:04):
But you have a lot of people coming forward saying
the same thing. All of it is very similar. And
you know, you have one of the things I've said,
and I think it's true. You have a lot of
people right now out there who are watching this happen.
We are probably scrubbing their social media, We're probably searching
(18:25):
their memories, who are probably deleting texts and data from
their phones and are probably very nervous right now, and
would I would think they should be.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I'm not going to get in too much to the
nine year old because that that's a child.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There's no explanation for that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Zero, Okay, But when you talk about some of these survivors,
you hear about half of them are men, half of women.
Twenty five were minors at the time of the alleged incidents.
Number one, is that true? And number two, when strictly
speaking about the adults, what about those who would say,
(19:05):
what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
If they were flown in they were quote unquote sex workers.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
They knew what they were getting into. It was complicit.
It might be reprehensible in some people's eyes, but as
Diddy's lawyer said on television weeks ago, it's one thing
to be unethical, it's another thing to be illegal. And
it wasn't illegal because they were given the impression that
it was adult consent involved. What does mister Tony Buzby
(19:31):
say to that.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
I think every case stands on its own merit. I think,
you know, I could I could imagine a scenario with
somebody was either through a broker or maybe a staff
member who went and collected individuals, promised them payment to
come and be you know, you all heard of atmosphere
girls or people to attend parties for the atmosphere, and
(19:54):
then those people to be taken advantage of and not
being allowed to leave and being coursed to do things
that perhaps they didn't they would have to do. I
don't think that's outside the bounds of imagination, but I
will say that with regard to a minor, when that's involved,
and it doesn't matter whether there's payment and consent or
attempted consent, Obviously, under the law, you cannot consent to
(20:15):
that kind of conduct when you're a minor. And I'm
not suggesting that the one hundred and twenty people here
are people that were flown in.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I'm just suggesting that that's what they report.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Most of the people that I represent were not those
people that were recruited and flown in. Most of them
are people who were either trying to break into the
business or who were identified, you know, were not you know,
part of some group that would typically be flown in anywhere.
They were just people that were invited to parties because
they were either on the street, in a club, at
(20:47):
a bar, at a hotel lobby.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I mean, you name it.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Every scenario you can think of is probably probably fits
the bill. With these one hundred and twenty some odd people, what.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Do you expect to stop following these suits.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I'm hoping to file.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I wanted to do it in a week, but to
be realistic, I said thirty days. But I expect within
thirty days we'll start filing individual cases, and we'll continue
to file individual cases, and you know, will pursue them aggressively.
And obviously it's a herculean task when you're dealing with
a lot of different individuals with each of them has
a different case, different evidence, different defendants, different venue, different
(21:22):
law that applies. So it's a tough task, but you
know it's an important task because I look.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Forward to it.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Your thoughts are your words to people who would say, well,
you had a press conference yesterday and it was very,
very dramatic. There's over one hundred and twenty cases that
you're going to aim in the direction of p Diddy Combs,
and you're still searching for additional evidence, et cetera, et cetera.
So the argument will be made that you don't really
have a lock solid case against this man at this
(21:52):
particular moment in time. They would say, why have the
press conference at all at this particular juncture as you
did yesterday?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
To that, you say, what, sir.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
To that, I say, you know, could I file the
cases against Shawncombs right now?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, But I want to make sure I capture a
wide net and capture everybody involved. And that's what I'm
That's what I'm trying to do. And part of the
part of the purpose of the press conference was to
encourage people that witnessed some of these events to come forward,
and that's happening now, because I want to make sure
when we file the case that we don't just you know,
I want to say it like this. You know, Shawn Combs,
(22:25):
you know, obviously has a lot of trouble on his
plate right now, and you know he ain't going anywhere.
I want to make sure that that that anyone that
facilitated this, egged it on, participated, benefited from, profited from
they're involved too, because that's really that's really what needs
to happen here.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It happened, it happens in other cases like that.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
You want to make sure that you include everyone, especially
those that enabled and were complicit.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So, Tony Buzby, to close this interview, you're saying, and
I want to make sure I'm quoting you accurately, Sean
Did is not the only person you're after. You're after
anyone who was involved, anyone who was complicit, public figure,
private figure, business, folks, industries, et cetera. You don't give
a damn who it is. You want them all.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's what you're here to do.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Is that correct? Thank you summed it up perfectly. Yes,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Tony Busby with the Buzzby Law Firm based out of Houston, Texas,
right here on the stephen A.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Smith Show.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Over the digital it was a YouTube and of course
iHeart radio. Tony Buzby, thank you so much for your
time and your expertise. Really really appreciate it, and thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Thank you, sir,
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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