Coming off his legal victory representing A$AP Rocky in the rapper’s 2021 felony shooting case, where he was acquitted on all charges, attorney Joe Tacopina joined The Breakfast Club on Monday (Feb. 24).
Among the topics discussed throughout the interview were Diddy’s sex trafficking and racketeering case, and Tacopina revealed he was asked to look into Sean Combs’ case, but declined due to his ties to Roc Nation and Jay-Z.
“I represent Roc Nation; a lot of people in Roc I’m very close with,” he said. “Jay and [Roc Nation president] Desiree Perez, who’s the most amazing, like, bomb of a boss. Jay is amazing. You know, Jay Brown, all those people are just, like, they really are special, special people.”
Tacopina continued to claim that Diddy and Jay aren’t close these days. “That’s sort of family to me and I don’t think they see eye to eye with P. Diddy,” he added.
Host Charlamagne Tha God interrupted Tacopina to have him repeat his sentiments regarding the status of Combs and Hov’s relationship.
“Everyone wants a picture with P. Diddy, at one time or another when they went to a party,” he explained of the hip-hop moguls being photographed together over the years. “But when things got real, years and years ago.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Diddy and Roc Nation for comment.
A civil lawsuit accusing Jay-Z of raping a 13-year-old girl alongside Diddy was voluntarily dismissed on Feb. 14 after being filed in New York federal court in December by attorney Tony Buzbee.
A Jane Doe plaintiff had accused Hov and Combs of drugging and assaulting her during an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z called the case “extortionate” in his initial response to the filing.
“The frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed,” Jay-Z wrote in a message posted to the Roc Nation Instagram account following the case’s dismissal. “This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims. I would not wish this experience on anyone. The trauma that my wife, my children, my loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
Combs was arrested in September and is currently being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His lawyer Marc Agnifilo called it an “unjust prosecution” at the time, and added that the musician was cooperating with law enforcement and had moved to New York in anticipation of the charges. Said Agnifilo: “These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
The disgraced music mogul is currently awaiting trial, which is slated to start in May. Prosecutors allege Combs was running a criminal enterprise looking to satisfy his need for “sexual gratification.” Diddy has also been accused of using violence and intimidation tactics to keep his alleged victims from speaking out against him. If convicted on all charges, Combs faces life in prison.
Watch the full interview below. Talk of Diddy and Jay-Z starts shortly after the 47-minute mark.
