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HOUSTON (AP) — High-profile legal battles are nothing new for Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, with his latest being a lawsuit he’s filed against Jay-Z, accusing the iconic rapper as well as Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting a minor at an awards show after-party in 2000.

The lawsuit against Jay-Z is part of a series of civil cases the Houston-based Buzbee has filed against Combs, who remains jailed in New York as he awaits trial on federal charges that he coerced and abused women for years.

In his legal career, Buzbee has represented a variety of clients. He helped acquit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate last year. He represented more than two dozen women who accused Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct and assault. Buzbee has also made a couple of unsuccessful runs at elected office, including a bid to be Houston’s mayor.

His critics say he’s full of bluster and bombast. Jay-Z said the lawsuit against him is part of an extortion attempt. Buzbee’s law firm has said he’s worked to amplify the voices of the marginalized and to “pursue justice against powerful figures.”

“We’re a society where we typically don’t believe the accuser. We blame the victim and by proxy we blame her lawyers,” Buzbee said during a March 2021 news conference.

Here’s what to know about Buzbee, his involvement in the lawsuits against Combs and what other cases he’s handled.

Who is Tony Buzbee?

Buzbee is a well-known name in Texas courtrooms who has won billions of dollars in settlements for his clients.

He grew up in northeast Texas, the son of a butcher and a high school cafeteria worker. After graduating from Texas A&M University, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Buzbee later went to law school and founded his own firm.

His style is “characterized by his aggressive legal tactics, his ability to command media attention and his knack for turning complex legal battles into public narratives that resonate with juries and the public alike,” according to his law firm’s website.

What is Buzbee’s involvement in the legal case against Combs?

Buzbee has said his firm is representing more than 150 people, both men and women, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of Combs.

Buzbee’s firm, which has set up a 1-800 number for accusers, has filed a wave of suits against the hip-hop mogul. Buzbee’s lawsuits allege that many of the people he represents were abused at parties in New York, California and Florida where individuals were given drinks that were laced with drugs.

Combs’ lawyers have dismissed Buzbee’s lawsuits as “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs.”

On Sunday, Jay-Z issued a statement in which he accused Buzbee of trying to blackmail him by getting him to agree to a legal settlement over allegations he and Combs raped a woman when she was 13 years old.

“I have no idea how you have come to be such a deplorable human Mr. Buzbee, but I promise you I have seen your kind many times over,” Jay-Z said in his statement. “You claim to be a marine? Marines are known for their valor, you have neither honor nor dignity.”

Buzbee said in a Sunday Facebook post he “won’t be bullied or intimidated.”

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant and I am quite certain the sun is coming,” Buzbee said.

What other cases has Buzbee handled?

In 2009, his firm won a $100 million settlement for 10 workers who were sicked by a chemical release at a refinery in suburban Houston.

Buzbee has also represented politicians, including Paxton and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an abuse-of-power case.

In 2013, he settled lawsuits for 10 teenagers who had accused eccentric Texas millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 of paying them for sexual acts.

Buzbee has also settled lawsuits that he filed on behalf of 25 women who had accused Watson, when he was with the Houston Texans, of exposing himself, touching them with his genitals or kissing them against their will during massage appointments.

“I’ve handled some of the largest cases in this state,” Buzbee said during the 2021 news conference.

The Onion’s rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory platform, which will remain in his control for at least the near future.

What’s next for Infowars and the Sandy Hook families’ long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion’s winning bid for the site. The only other bidder was a company aligned with Jones.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones’ creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them.

“Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said Wednesday.

The families, meanwhile, were preparing to mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting.
Why was The Onion bid rejected?

The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.

He has since conceded that the shooting did happen.

Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion’s bid, and he expressed concern that the amount of money offered was too low.

The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors.

The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected those allegations.

Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones’ other creditors.
What happens next?

Lopez directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones’ bankruptcy and that Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars’ parent company.

The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan.

On the social media platform X, Jones called the judge’s ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process.”

Jeff Anapolsky, an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the managing director and founder of Anapolsky Advisors, a financial consulting firm, said he was not surprised Lopez rejected the sale. He was not involved in the case but said he has appeared before Lopez and described him as a fair judge.

Anapolsky believes the sale of the Infowars assets will ultimately take place and be approved.

“So that’s up to Mr. Murray now, the trustee, to go do something to make everybody feel like everybody had their say and understand the transparency of the process,” Anapolsky said.
Sandy Hook families to mark shooting anniversary

The decision came during a solemn week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims’ relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend an annual vigil for victims of gun violence. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye.

Many of the families have said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones’ hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats.

The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials.

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Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that poor planning and inadequate communication led to the deaths of six people in a 2022 midair plane collision, the National Transportation Safety Board announced Monday. The report caps two years of investigation by federal authorities into the incident, which has also spawned several pending civil lawsuits from relatives of the victims who died in the fiery collision in the skies over southern Dallas. The crash occurred when two Word War II-era planes were completing a repositioning turn during the Wings Over Dallas airshow, killing the five people aboard a Boeing bomber and the sole occupant of a Bell fighter. No one on the ground or in any of the six other aircraft involved in the show was hurt during the incident. The city owns and operates Dallas Executive Airport, located just off of U.S. Highway 67 in southern Dallas, where the airshow was operating from when the incident occurred. A city spokesperson declined to comment about the report Monday night.

When federal investigators modeled the flight paths and conducted a visibility simulation study, they determined the pilots involved had a limited ability to see and avoid the crash, according to a news release. The investigators concluded the absence of an aircraft separation plan at the pre-briefing contributed to the crash, as well as a lack of administrative planning to address other “predictable risks.” In the absence of that plan, investigators found the 2022 show relied on the air boss’ real-time directives to avoid overlaps in flight paths. An air boss is the primary operations and safety official at an airshow who functions like a parade marshal, ensuring each of the planes involved is carefully positioned both on the runways and in the air. In interviews, some crewmembers of the other performing planes said they were confused by the air boss’ long stream of instructions. The release said terms are not standardized across the air show industry to avoid this type of confusion. The news release did note that while a plan to “ensure vertical or lateral separation” of the planes was not discussed at the briefing, one was not required by regulations at the time. The final report summary included multiple recommendations for policy changes to air show operations, including recurring air boss evaluations by the Federal Aviation Administration, standardized terms for air boss directives to performing pilots and safety risk assessments for each performance. Since the crash, the annual air show has not returned to Dallas. The group that hosted it, the Commemorative Air Force, has continued to host annual Veterans Day events in other locations with more of a festival atmosphere.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas hospitals like Houston Methodist have devoted big parts of their businesses in recent years to buying up doctors’ practices and rebranding them as part of their outpatient networks. But they may soon have to figure out a different strategy. Under existing federal Medicare rules, hospital-operated outpatient facilities get higher fees than what a traditional doctor’s office would receive for the same procedure or treatment — sometimes double or even five times the amount, according to KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. Now Congress is considering whether to end the practice as part of a larger effort to reduce the cost of Medicare, the more than $900 billion program that provides healthcare to more than 2.3 million Texans 65 years of age or older. The Congressional Budget Office estimates such reforms could save the federal government up to $100 billion over the next decade, on the back of recent cuts to reimbursement rates for in-hospital care for Medicare patients.

“It would be a big deal for hospitals,” said Kristie Loescher, a healthcare professor at The University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. “A lot of outpatient care is actually being done in hospitals (and the facilities they operate) and it’s driving a lot of revenue.” Hospitals are lobbying hard to block the reforms, arguing the higher fees are justified by the fact they are required to treat all those who come through their doors, regardless of whether they have insurance or not. Without the extra fees, Texas hospitals would likely be forced to eliminate some outpatient services, hurting access for patients, said John Hawkins, president of the Texas Hospital Association, a trade group. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, for instance, received more than $43 million from Medicare for outpatient care in fiscal year 2023, according to data compiled by the Rand Corporation. Houston Methodist took in more than $140 million. Methodist and other Houston-area hospitals declined or did not respond to requests for comment for this story. “A lot of these systems have expanded their outpatient capability outpatient to provide a pretty high level of care without patients having to go into the medical center,” Hawkins said. “A small (physicians) group wouldn’t necessarily be able to do that.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadly crash of two vintage military planes at a 2022 air show in Texas was caused by a lack of proper planning to keep aircraft separated and relying instead on a “see-and-avoid strategy” by pilots, federal investigators said Monday.

A Bell P-63F fighter was descending and banking to the left when it clipped the left wing of a Boeing B-17G bomber from behind. All six people aboard the World War II-era planes — the pilot of the fighter and the pilot, copilot and three other crew members on the bomber — were killed.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Monday that the pilots’ visibility was limited by their flight paths, obstructions in the cockpits, and “the attention demands associated with the air show performance.”

The investigators said the probable cause of the accident was the lack of a briefing on aircraft separation by the show organizer and the “air boss,” who used binoculars and a two-way radio to direct pilots. Instead, they relied “on the air boss’s real-time deconfliction directives and the see-and-avoid strategy for collision avoidance,” investigators said.

The show was put on by the Commemorative Air Force, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving military aircraft. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The conclusions hewed closely to preliminary findings that the board issued in late 2022.

Aviation safety experts have said they were surprised that there was no briefing beforehand about keeping planes at separate altitudes, and that such planning occurs at other air shows. A person familiar with the show’s operations that day said pilots were given general directions on altitude during a pre-show briefing, but they did not discuss specific altitudes for each pass that the aircraft would perform.

The NTSB also faulted the Federal Aviation Administration for a lack of guidance for air bosses and air show organizers and requirements to continually evaluate air bosses and oversee their performance. The board said it would publish a final report Thursday.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Six Guatemalans were arrested in Guatemala and in Texas Monday on human smuggling charges linked to a 2021 semitrailer truck crash in Mexico that killed more than 50 migrants, authorities said.

The truck had been packed with at least 160 migrants, many of them Guatemalans, when it crashed into a support for a pedestrian bridge in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas. The arrests were announced on the three-year anniversary of the accident.

According to an indictment unsealed Monday in Laredo, Texas, Guatemalan authorities arrested Tomas Quino Canil, 36; Alberto Marcario Chitic, 31; Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 24; and Josefa Quino Canil de Zavala, 42.

Another man, Jorge Agapito Ventura, was arrested at his home in Cleveland, Texas, U.S. authorities said. Guatemalan officials noted a sixth arrest. A sixth name listed on the U.S. federal indictment was blacked out.

The accused were charged with conspiracy, placing life in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death.

It was unclear late Monday if those arrested had attorneys in the United States who could comment on their behalf. Justice Department officials did not immediately respond to an email Monday night.

The indictment charges them with conspiring to smuggle migrants from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. for payment. In some cases that involved smuggling unaccompanied children, the defendants would provide scripts of what to say if apprehended, the indictment said.

The smugglers would move migrants on foot, inside microbuses, cattle trucks and tractor trailers, the indictment said. It said the smugglers would use Facebook Messenger to request and deliver identification documents to the migrants to get them into the U.S.

“The tragedy that occurred three years ago today in Chiapas is further proof that human smugglers are ruthless, callous and dangerous, intending migrants should not believe their lives,” said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez said the defendants were part of a criminal structure called Los Quino, and that U.S. officials had requested extradition of the four arrested in Guatemala.

Authorities executed 15 search warrants across Guatemala on Monday, Jiménez said. He said they had the support of the U.S. and Mexican governments.

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This story has been updated to correct Oswaldo Zavala Quino’s middle name. It is Manuel, not Manuael.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration, Republican governors and lawmakers in some states are already rolling out proposals that could help him carry out his pledge to deport millions of people living in the U.S. illegally.

Lawmakers in a growing number of states are proposing to give local law officers the power to arrest people who entered the country illegally, mirroring recent laws in Texas and elsewhere that have been placed on hold while courts weigh whether they unconstitutionally usurp federal authority.

Other legislation filed ahead of next year’s legislative sessions would require local law enforcement agencies to notify federal immigration officials when they take someone into custody who is in the country illegally, even if the charges have nothing to do with their immigration status. Though not specifically requested by Trump, many of the state proposals would complement his immigration policies.

“We would be finding people who are in violation of this law, and we would be sort of hand-delivering them to the nearest port of deportation so that they could be removed in a safe and orderly fashion,” said Missouri state Sen. Curtis Trent, who is sponsoring one of the proposals.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that 11 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the U.S. as of 2022, the latest statistics available. While campaigning, Trump talked about creating “the largest mass deportation program in history” and called for using the National Guard and domestic police forces in the effort.

Some Democratic-led states already are raising resistance. The California Legislature has convened a special session to try to shield people from potential Trump policies, including by boosting legal aid for immigrants facing deportation.

Lawmakers in numerous states are likely to try to thwart or cooperate with Trump’s immigration agenda, Tim Storey, CEO of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Monday.

In Missouri, Trent’s bill would empower local law officers to arrest people for a new state crime of “improper entry by an alien,” punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and a court-ordered ride to the U.S. border.

A separate bill by Missouri state Sen.-elect David Gregory would offer a $1,000 reward to informants who tip off police about people in the country illegally and allow private bounty hunters to find and detain them.

Missouri’s Republican Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe hasn’t endorsed a specific legislative plan after campaigning against illegal immigration and the scourge of fentanyl smuggled across the U.S. border. But he told The Associated Press: “If they’re here illegally, it definitely should trigger something more than it does now.”

Immigrant advocacy groups already are raising alarm about some state proposals. Missouri’s proposed bounty system would “create absolute chaos and division,” said Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, which advocates for U.S. citizens married to foreign nationals.

Although many Americans support a path to citizenship for people living in the U.S. illegally, support for deportation also has grown. More than 4 in 10 voters said most immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally should be deported to the country they came from, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters in this year’s election. That’s up from about 3 in 10 in 2020. More than half of voters said most immigrants in the U.S. illegally should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, down from about 7 in 10 who said this in 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

Many Republicans point to Texas as a model for immigration enforcement. Its $11 billion Operation Lone Star program has erected razor wire and other barriers along the Mexican border, stationed state troopers and Texas National Guard members in border towns and bused thousands of migrants to Democratic-led “sanctuary cities” such as New York, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington. Texas law officers also have made tens of thousands of arrests, including many for trespassing on private property.

Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” visited Texas last month and said its border security tactics can be a model for the Trump administration. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office confirmed that it’s been in regular contact with Trump’s team about strategies.

Following Texas’ lead, Republican-led legislatures in Iowa, Louisiana and Oklahoma passed measures allowing law officers to arrest people who are in the U.S. illegally. Shortly after Trump’s election, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he was working on a plan to deport some of the more than 500 immigrants currently in Oklahoma prisons who are not legal citizens.

Arizona voters last month also approved a ballot measure letting local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering from Mexico, though it won’t kick in until a similar law in Texas or another state has been in effect for 60 consecutive days.

Other Republican state measures seek to boost cooperation between local law officers and federal immigration officials.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox recently announced an initiative to improve coordination with federal officials to identify undocumented immigrants in the state’s criminal justice system and turn them over for deportation. Cox said there will be “zero tolerance” for “those who demonstrate a threat to public safety while in the country illegally.”

A Georgia law enacted earlier this year requires jailers to check the immigration status of inmates and apply to help enforce federal immigration laws. The measure gained traction after the murder of University of Georgia student Laken Riley. A Venezuelan man who had entered the U.S. illegally was convicted of killing her and sentenced to life in prison.

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature last month overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to enact a law directing sheriffs to comply with federal immigration agents’ requests to hold inmates. That came after several Democratic sheriffs from urban counties refused to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Other Democratic governors dealing with Republican-led legislatures are pushing back against the potential for sweeping deportation plans. Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she supports deporting people who commit crimes while living in the U.S. illegally, but she won’t send out the National Guard to help enforce federal immigration laws.

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who also faces a Republican-led Legislature, said undocumented immigrants “are a really important part of our economy” in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.

“Trying to move them out of the country is irrational,” Evers said. “So, we’ll do whatever we can to avoid that.”

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Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson-Deveaux in Washington and writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.