Lawyer Tony Buzbee issued another statement Tuesday involving the allegations made against Shannon Sharpe.
Buzbee offered a new statement on his Instagram Tuesday in response to a video message Sharpe posted earlier in the day regarding the allegations made against him by Gabriella Zuniga. Specifically, Buzbee addressed a claim by Sharpe’s lawyer suggesting that Sharpe’s accuser had rejected a huge sum of money in an attempt to settle the case.
Buzbee suggested that it was true that his client turned down $10 million as part of a settlement. The lawyer pointed out how that tactic is at odds with Sharpe’s claim that the allegations are meritless, said he and his client would “not be deterred” by Sharpe’s attacks on them.
Buzbee also claimed that his client, whom he is still identifying as Jane Doe, signed a confidentiality agreement with Sharpe prior to the two sides entering mediation. Buzbee claimed that Sharpe’s camp has now “breached that agreement” by revealing the accuser’s name, and said it would prove to be a “grievous error” on Sharpe’s part.
“Although we will save the video discussed by Sharpe’s lawyers for the courtroom, I would suggest that Mr. Sharpe’s new lawyer take a moment to listen to his client at a different time on audio, and ask his client for the real story — the truth,” Buzbee wrote.
Buzbee was referring to an alleged video of what Sharpe has claimed was a consensual sexual encounter that has been deceptively edited to bolster Zuniga’s $50 million lawsuit against him. Buzbee has also produced audio that was released earlier Tuesday containing an alleged phone call in which Sharpe can be heard threatening to “f–ing choke the s– out of” Zuniga.
Sharpe has publicly denied the allegations and suggested he is the victim of a “shakedown” by Zuniga. He has also taken direct aim at Buzbee by accusing the lawyer of a pattern of targeting black men, alluding to Buzbee’s previous representation of an individual who accused Jay-Z of sexual assault before withdrawing the lawsuit.
Sharpe’s legal team has identified Zuniga as an adult-content creator, which led to her Instagram and OnlyFans pages being discovered. They have also released numerous graphic text messages allegedly between Sharpe and Zuniga that depict the relationship as a consensual one.
