Fat Joe's legal team is going after opposing counsel Tyrone Blackburn for allegedly packing a court filing with AI-generated ghost citations.
The brief, obtained by Complex, flags seventeen instances where Blackburn allegedly cited case law that either doesn't exist or twists the actual holdings of real rulings. The rapper’s team alleges Blackburn’s motion to oppose in the defamation case is riddled with fabrications, and are demanding he face consequences.
Fat Joe’s lawyers want Blackburn to finally face the music (no pun intended). "It is time, once and for all, for Blackburn to be sanctioned for his flagrant disregard of his duties and responsibilities to the court in fabricating and intentionally misconstruing legal authority."
This isn't the first time Blackburn has faced such accusations from Fat Joe. Last September, Joe’s legal team accused him of relying on AI-generated citations so that the defamation case could be dropped.
In a separate case involving pastor T.D. Jakes, U.S. District Judge William Stickman ordered Blackburn to pay more than $76,000 in legal fees after his filings were found to include AI-generated citations and false claims. Stickman called the conduct "clear ethical violations of the highest order."
The AI-citation fight is one front in a sprawling legal war. Fat Joe sued his former hype man, Terrance "T.A." Dixon, and Blackburn earlier in 2025, alleging the pair tried to extort him by spreading fabricated accusations of sexual misconduct, underage relationships, and even murder-for-hire plots across social media in a bid to pressure him into a multimillion-dollar payout. Both Fat Joe and Roc Nation have forcefully denied every underlying claim.
Dixon's legal troubles in this case extend beyond the AI-citation dispute. In a June 23 order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis granted Fat Joe's sanctions motion in part and ordered Dixon to sit for a second deposition. Judge Willis also referred Blackburn to the Southern District of New York's Grievance Committee after finding that his "homophobic, transphobic, and sexualized comments" directed at opposing counsel during a Feb. 24 deposition "shock the conscience." The court rejected Blackburn's claim that pain medication drove that conduct.
On June 1, attorney Alex Spiro filed a second sanctions motion on behalf of Roc Nation against Dixon and Blackburn. Fat Joe's team is asking the court to deny the motion to dismiss, impose sanctions, and let the defamation lawsuit move forward.
