A prominent figure is suing the lawyer repping more than 120 of Diddy's alleged victims, saying the attorney is "shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him," while threatening a lawsuit packed with "wildly false horrific allegations" if he doesn't pay up.
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00:00I was at one of P. Diddy's freak-offs.
00:03Freak-offs.
00:04You saw celebrities there that you recognized.
00:07They were a rapper that we all know.
00:10Straight-up porn directed by Diddy.
00:13I'm just grateful to have made it out.
00:15So there has been another Diddy lawsuit,
00:18but this one goes in the opposite direction.
00:22In this one, what looks like a celebrity
00:26is suing the lawyer who has filed all the lawsuits
00:30against Diddy, suing him.
00:32Most of them.
00:33A lot of them.
00:34Yeah.
00:35More than 120 lawsuits.
00:37Eventually.
00:38Eventually he'll have that number.
00:40Tony Busby.
00:41And it's for extortion.
00:43Extortion.
00:44Yeah.
00:45This is potentially a game-changer
00:48in the Diddy lawsuit arena
00:51because someone, a prominent,
00:53only referring to himself as a prominent figure.
00:57Who has some connection to Diddy.
00:59And has connection to Diddy.
01:00Admittedly says, in their lawsuit,
01:02they say this is someone who associated with Diddy,
01:05attended his parties,
01:07and because of that association,
01:10they say that this person received
01:13a demand letter from Tony Busby.
01:15Now, we spoke to Tony Busby.
01:17We were telling you about these demand letters.
01:19In fact, it's in our documentary.
01:21It's in our documentary.
01:22He's very open about the fact, Tony Busby is,
01:25that he has sent these letters to celebrities
01:28who, even if they weren't necessarily engaging
01:31in any illegal activity,
01:33but if they were at a party
01:35and did nothing to stop illegal activity.
01:37If they saw, for example,
01:39somebody who is having sex
01:42where they're not really competent
01:45to make a decision to say yes to it
01:47because they're on drugs or alcohol,
01:50he feels they are as guilty as the perpetrator
01:53who essentially raped that person.
01:55And he has made that really clear.
01:57He made that clear in our documentary and said,
01:59he's going after him.
02:01Well, now, somebody got that letter.
02:04A celebrity got that letter.
02:06And decided they weren't going to take it.
02:08They weren't going to just let Tony Busby
02:11make this demand of them
02:12when they clearly feel they did nothing wrong.
02:15So now they are suing Tony Busby for extortion.
02:19Now, we talked to him in this documentary.
02:22It's called The Downfall of Diddy Inside the Freak Offs.
02:25And I spoke with him about this very thing.
02:28About whether filing or sending a demand letter
02:33basically saying,
02:34I have a lot of embarrassing things to say about you
02:37even if it's not necessarily legally wrong that you did.
02:40Was that kind of the game here
02:43to exact money for fear on the other side?
02:49I thought his response to you was stunning.
02:52Here's what Tony Busby said.
02:54I'm curious what you think about that criticism
02:58that you put enough embarrassing things in a complaint
03:03or say you're going to.
03:05And it forces a settlement
03:07and it becomes almost that's the game.
03:10What do you say about that?
03:12That's a criticism I hear on the other side.
03:18No, it's a fair point.
03:20I mean, the system is the system.
03:23It's a gulag, if you will.
03:25It's a tough, tough process.
03:27And we always attempt, make an attempt
03:30to resolve these cases without the filing of a lawsuit.
03:33That's just what we try to do.
03:34And if we fail in that, we're going to file the case
03:37and we're going to pursue it with aggression.
03:39You know, Tony Busby, it may seem a little unseemly,
03:41but what he's saying is right.
03:42This is the way, Harvey, we've covered these cases forever
03:45where aggressive plaintiff's lawyers will reach out
03:47to somebody and say, unless you go ahead
03:49and pay my client money now,
03:51I'm going to file a lawsuit against you.
03:52And whether the allegations are true or not,
03:54it's going to be really embarrassing
03:55just to have the lawsuit filed, therefore pay up.
03:58And that's what Tony Busby is doing.
03:59Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't believe
04:02in what his clients are saying.
04:03He doesn't believe that he has a viable lawsuit.
04:05But the plaintiff in this case, the John Doe that's suing him
04:08is saying Tony Busby knows they're false
04:11and is sending these letters anyways.
04:13And that's a violation of his legal ethics.
04:15And he says a violation of the laws around extortion.
04:18So, Jason, in the legal community,
04:20there are two words that critics of people,
04:23of Tony Busby and other lawyers, you know,
04:26who are filing these suits,
04:27there are two words that they use to describe
04:30that whole process, send a demand letter
04:33or else I'm going to sue you.
04:34Two words.
04:35Legalized extortion.
04:36Yep.
04:37I mean, that's what is commonly referred to
04:40in the legal community.
04:42Legalized extortion.
04:44And what this person is saying is not legal.
04:49They're taking the word legal out.
04:51Right.
04:52With respect to the plaintiff,
04:53and I know they believe what they're saying,
04:55if you create a system where lawyers are afraid
04:57to send these demand letters,
04:59what you have are just lawsuits being filed
05:01without the demand letters being sent in the first place.
05:03And that's not the system we want either.
05:05Lawyers have to be able to say to prospective defendants,
05:08I mean, lots of times the plaintiff does have
05:11a good claim against the defendant
05:12and they don't want to have to go to court with it
05:15and they do want to be paid.
05:16So how do you do that if the lawyer's afraid
05:18they're going to get sued for extortion?
05:20Hey, I'm Tiffany Pollard from Colorado Springs
05:22and this situation is just all over the place.
05:24Like, it's extortion, legal extortion,
05:27Jane Doe with John Doe,
05:28and at this point we're just tired,
05:30or I personally am tired.
05:31I just need the truth to come out
05:33and justice for the victims to happen
05:34because it's just, it's too much.
05:36It's happening.
05:37Well, the issue is how do you define victims
05:39and how do you define perpetrators?
05:41That's unresolved.
05:42Right, and the numbers that we're talking about,
05:45it's not going to be the same for,
05:47you kind of have to look at every single case.
05:49Absolutely, absolutely.