• A judge dismissed a sex assault lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs over anonymity issues.
• The accuser's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, said he's not worried about the other anonymous suits against Combs.
• Combs' legal team said they expect more lawsuits against the hip-hop mogul to be tossed.

Sean "Diddy" Combs scored a win this week when a New York federal judge dismissed one of the sexual assault lawsuits against him after the anonymous accuser did not reveal her identity.

Tony Buzbee, one of the accuser's attorneys, told Business Insider that even though the lawsuit was tossed, he's not worried about the success of the rest of the lawsuits his firm initially brought in the same court on behalf of a slew of "Jane Doe" and "John Doe" plaintiffs alleging sex abuse.

Prior to the judge's Monday dismissal of the lawsuit, Buzbee had been forced to formally withdraw from that case and the more than a dozen other federal cases he filed against Combs in the Southern District of New York after it became clear the Texas-based attorney was not allowed to practice law in that court.

Buzbee previously told BI that his firm is still representing the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuits against Combs, but that his co-counsel will handle any formal appearances in the cases.

In the case of the anonymous woman whose lawsuit was thrown out this week, US District Judge Lewis Liman wrote in his order that on March 6 he denied the plaintiff's motion to proceed with the case anonymously and ordered her to re-file a complaint using her real name by March 20 — or the case would be dismissed.

"As of today, March 31, 2025, Plaintiff has not filed a complaint in her own name, nor has she sought an extension of time to do so," Liman wrote. "Accordingly, the case is dismissed."

The plaintiff's lawsuit alleged that Combs attacked and raped her at a 1995 promotional party for a music video by the rapper Biggie Smalls.

Buzbee told BI on Tuesday that the move by the judge was "expected."

"In this particular case, Jane Doe opted not to proceed. There is a lot of fear amongst these plaintiffs. I thus can't blame her," Buzbee said in an email.

"These are tough cases and they are many times re-traumatizing for those who pursue them. Each case stands on its own merit," he said. "This woman chose not to proceed and subject herself to the media circus and the perceived danger she felt. We have to respect that."

Buzbee added, "I don't worry," when asked whether he's concerned his other clients' anonymous lawsuits against Combs will ultimately be dismissed on similar grounds.

New York federal judges overseeing at least two other cases against Combs brought by Buzbee and his team have ordered that the anonymous plaintiffs file amended complaints this month with their real names.

Combs remains locked up pretrial at a Brooklyn jail on federal sex trafficking charges. He has vehemently denied the charges, as well as all sexual abuse allegations against him.

The rapper's legal team said in a statement that they expect more of the lawsuits brought by Buzbee and fellow attorney Antigone Curis to be tossed.

"This is now the second case brought by these attorneys against Mr. Combs that has been dismissed in its entirety. It will not be the last," Combs' attorneys said. "For months, we have seen case after case filed by individuals hiding behind anonymity, pushed forward by attorneys more focused on media headlines than legal merit."

Combs' lawyers said that the other claims, like the one that was dismissed on Monday, "also will not hold up in a court of law."

In addition to the New York federal lawsuits Buzbee has filed against Combs, he has also filed several suits in New York state court where he says he is licensed.

• Attorney Tony Buzbee has withdrawn from over a dozen lawsuits he filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
• Buzbee was not permitted to practice in the New York federal court where he filed the suits.
• The Texas-based attorney told BI in an email that Jay-Z filed a grievance against him.

Tony Buzbee, the Texas-based attorney who has brought a wave of sex abuse lawsuits against Sean "Diddy" Combs, has been forced to back out of more than a dozen cases involving the hip-hop mogul — and he's putting the blame on Jay-Z.

This week, Buzbee withdrew himself as the plaintiff attorney in at least 14 lawsuits that he filed against Combs dating back to October in a New York federal court after it became clear he was not permitted to practice law there, according to court documents reviewed by Business Insider.

Buzbee told BI that Jay-Z — whose real name is Shawn Carter — has filed a court grievance against him in a bid to keep him from getting admitted to try cases in the Southern District of New York.

Jay-Z's lawyer, Alex Spiro, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, a judge overseeing one of Buzbee's cases said in a court filing that it came to her attention that Buzbee has not been admitted to practice in the SDNY, a federal court district that includes Manhattan — where Buzbee has filed a slew of lawsuits against Combs accusing him of sexual assault and rape.

Combs, who remains locked up pretrial at a Brooklyn jail on federal sex trafficking charges, has vehemently denied the charges, as well as all sex abuse allegations against him.

According to a February 13 order from the Committee on Grievances in the SDNY, Buzbee filed for admission to practice in the court on January 29, months after he first filed lawsuits against Combs.

"Per the Committee's review of the dockets, Mr. Buzbee has appeared in cases in this Court without seeking admission. Therefore, the Petition is denied," the committee's chair wrote in the order, court papers show.

US District Judge Ronnie Abrams, in her filing last week, said Buzbee had been warned several weeks prior in a separate case that he was in violation of a local rule of the court due to his admission status. Abrams wrote that Buzbee "failed to bring this issue to the Court's attention" and ordered him to explain why.

In a Monday letter, Buzbee wrote that he "made an error in judgment by failing to inform" the judge that he had not been admitted to practice in SDNY.

"As an attorney in good standing of the New York State Bar, the Texas State Bar, and your sister district, the Bar for Eastern District of the State of New York, I believe I am eminently qualified and should not be precluded from representing the Plaintiff in this action," Buzbee wrote.

However, he wrote, his admission status has "become a distraction that has shifted the focus of the matter away from where it should be, which is securing justice for the Plaintiff."

Buzbee added that the unnamed plaintiff in the case will continue to be represented by the New York law firm with which he co-filed that lawsuit and others against Combs as he sorts "these issues" out.

Buzbee told BI by email that he is licensed to practice law in New York state court, as well as the Eastern District of New York.

"Typically, when you are admitted in a sister district, you receive reciprocal admission," he said. "But, in this case, the individual I was bringing a suit against, Shawn Carter, filed a grievance against me trying to keep me from receiving admission — a formality. So I have to deal with that before I receive formal admission."

Buzbee wrote he was one of multiple lawyers handling the cases, yet "was the only one singled out and a grievance filed against me by Jay Z."

He accused Jay-Z of "using the grievance process as a weapon."

Last month, one of Buzbee's clients dropped her sexual assault lawsuit that accused Combs and Jay-Z. Jay-Z has since filed a defamation suit against the Alabama woman and Buzbee.

Meanwhile, Buzbee filed a motion last month in another federal lawsuit against Combs seeking to represent his client on a "pro hac vice" basis — meaning he's an additional lawyer on the case despite not being licensed there. He wrote in the court filing that he was recently denied admission to the bar of the Southern District of New York "based in large part on the grievance."

Buzbee wrote in an affidavit attached to the motion that he intends to defend himself against the grievance and seek an appeal of the SDNY's admissions decision.

"The primary factor underlying both the grievance and the Southern District's admission decision is that I electronically signed numerous pleadings alongside my firm's local counsel (who is admitted to the Southern District of New York and who actually filed all pleadings and other papers)," Buzbee wrote.

"To the extent I violated the Southern District's rules in so doing, those violations were inadvertent, and I sincerely apologize."

In opposing Buzbee's motion, Combs' attorneys wrote in a February 26 court filing that they have never opposed a pro hac vice application — a request for temporary authorization to practice in a certain jurisdiction — "and we do not do so lightly here."

"But Buzbee's egregious misconduct warrants denial of the privilege of appearing in this District," the attorneys wrote.

"He has signed multiple filings across twenty- two cases without permission to practice in this Court; he failed in each instance to disclose that he had filed without being admitted; and he violated New York's Rules of Professional Conduct by, among other things, repeatedly insisting that Mr. Combs is guilty of the criminal charges pending against him in this District, even though Buzbee has no good faith basis to believe the Government will call any of his clients as a witness in that case," they said.

Buzbee has filed several other lawsuits against Combs in New York state court where he told BI he is lead counsel and will continue to be "as a member of good standing in the New York Bar."

• Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto fraudster serving a 25-year sentence, spoke with Tucker Carlson from behind bars.
• Bankman-Fried is bunking near Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is facing sex trafficking charges.
• Bankman-Fried said he's made friends and they play chess.

Sam Bankman-Fried talked life behind bars in a wide-ranging jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson.

Between crypto chatter and sharing his strategies for making friends in jail, Bankman-Fried also opened up about living alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center where both men are being held.

"He's been kind," Bankman-Fried said of Diddy. The rapper was arrested last year and is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in late 2023 at a criminal trial that dissected the fall of FTX, his defunct cryptocurrency exchange.

He is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

"I've made some friends," Bankman-Fried told the former Fox News anchor. "It's a weird environment. It's sort of a combination of a few other high profile cases and then a lot of, you know, ex gangsters, alleged ex gangsters."

The interview with Carlson prompted Mark Botnick, Bankman-Fried's media representative, to resign. He told Business Insider he was not aware that Carlson was planning to interview Bankman-Fried and had no involvement with it.

On-camera interviews from prisons and jails are unusual in the United States. The Metropolitan Detention Center, where Bankman-Fried is incarcerated while appealing his criminal conviction, is equipped with video teleconferencing equipment typically used for inmates to communicate with their lawyers. A representative for the jail declined to comment on Bankman-Fried's interview with Carlson but said that video interviews can be arranged with members of the media.

Here's what Bankman-Fried and Carlson talked about:

Hanging out with Sean "Diddy" Combs

Carlson posted a video of the 40-minute interview on social media on Thursday. He called Bankman-Fried and Combs "two of the most famous prisoners in the world," asking Bankman-Fried what it's like living in such close quarters.

"I've only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison. He's been kind to people in the unit. He's been kind to me. It's a position no one wants to be in. Obviously, he doesn't, I don't," Bankman-Fried said. "It's kind of a soul crushing place for the world in general, and what we see are just the people that are around us on the inside rather than who we are on the outside."

Bankman-Fried also said that other inmates have challenged his chess skills.

"They're good at chess. That's one thing I learned," Bankman-Fried told Carlson. "Former armed robbers who don't speak English and probably didn't graduate middle school — a surprising number are surprisingly good at chess."

The unflagging passage of time

Bankman-Fried turned 33 on Thursday but downplayed the milestone to Carlson.

"You're not going to tell Diddy it's your birthday tomorrow? I don't believe you," Tucker joked during the interview, which was apparently filmed Wednesday.

"Someone else might, but I'm not," Bankman-Fried replied.

Bankman-Fried says he expects to be in his late 40s when released from prison — if he's not pardoned first.

When Carlson asked whether he thinks he'll make it that long, the ex-crypto mogul said he didn't know.

Jail economics

In a world with no money — much less cryptocurrency — inmates use muffins as a medium of exchange, Bankman-Fried said.

Bankman-Fried said he hoards muffins as part of the "muffin economy" but doesn't eat them. He sticks to rice and beans and ramen noodles, he said.

"The scale of everything is so diminished in prison, you see people fighting over a single banana," Bankman-Fried said.

Crypto policy under Donald Trump's presidency

Trump has overseen far friendlier crypto policies than former President Joe Biden, having already dropped numerous cases against crypto companies.

Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty of defrauding customers and investors of his cryptocurrency exchange, said less government involvement in individual finances is a good thing.

"If you look at what Trump said going into office, there are a lot of good things," Bankman-Fried said.

But he said that, in order to shift things in the right direction, Trump would have to take on financial regulators.

"Changing the guard helps. But financial regulators — they're big, giant bureaucracies in the federal government," he said.

Having children

Bankman-Fried discussed his effective altruism philosophy with Carlson, explaining that he prioritized actions that did the most good to the most people.

Carlson asked Bankman-Fried where children fit into his worldview.

"Is having children part of your effective altruism philosophy?" Carlson asked Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried responded that he felt like his employees at FTX were his children.

"For five years, I felt like I had 300 children, most days: my employees. Obviously, I couldn't be a father to all of them. But I felt responsible for them."

Carlson took the point further.

"Have any of those 300 employees visited you in jail?" Carlson asked.

Bankman-Fried said that none had.

"Probably ought to have some real kids at some point, don't you think? Because when things go bad, they tend to stick around," Carlson told Bankman-Fried, who is set to spend the next two decades in prison.