Fat Joe’s authorized battle escalated after LexisNexis denied Tyrone Blackburn ever used the AI instruments he blamed for faux court docket citations.

Fat Joe’s authorized conflict with former enterprise affiliate Terrance Dixon took a pointy flip after LexisNexis publicly dismantled protection legal professional Tyrone Blackburn’s excuse that synthetic intelligence instruments had generated faux court docket citations in his filings.

In a December 3 court docket submission, Fat Joe’s legal professional, Jordan Siev, offered a letter from LexisNexis’ North American Head of Legal, Julie Chapman, stating that Blackburn was “never an authorized user or subscriber” of the corporate’s Lexis+AI or Protégé platforms.

The letter referred to as Blackburn’s claims “misleading and unsupported by evidence” and urged the court docket to disregard his try to shift duty for the bogus citations.

Blackburn had beforehand advised the court docket he had “adopted upgraded legal research tools, including LexisNexis Protégé,” and claimed the platform “generated suggestions and citation fields that [he] mistakenly incorporated without fully verifying.”

But Chapman’s assertion immediately contradicted that.

“Although Mr. Blackburn’s firm was once a subscriber to other LexisNexis services, that did not include the Protégé service,” she wrote.

The lawsuit, filed by Fat Joe, accuses Dixon and Blackburn of defamation over allegations that the Bronx rapper was concerned in monetary exploitation and sex trafficking.

Fat Joe has referred to as the claims a “smear campaign” and argued that Blackburn used unreliable AI-generated content to support baseless accusations.

This isn’t the primary time Blackburn’s authorized ways have raised crimson flags.

Earlier this yr, he represented Pastor Duane Youngblood in a defamation case introduced by Bishop T.D. Jakes. In that case, Blackburn submitted authorized briefs that included what the court docket later dominated had been “fake, AI-generated cases.”

The judge sanctioned him $5,000 for “clear ethical violations” and concluded he had “knowingly submitted legal documents he neither prepared nor reviewed for accuracy.”

That earlier ruling, first reported by AllHipHop, forged a protracted shadow over Blackburn’s credibility and highlighted the rising concern across the misuse of AI in authorized proceedings. Now that LexisNexis itself has rejected his claims, the scrutiny has solely intensified.

Fat Joe’s authorized group didn’t mince phrases of their submitting. “This is not an isolated mistake,” it learn. “It is a repeated tactic to mislead the court using non-existent legal authority.”

Whether Judge Jennifer Rochon of the Southern District of New York will impose sanctions stays to be seen.

But with LexisNexis confirming Blackburn’s statements had been false, the harm to his skilled standing might already be finished.

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