Tyrone Blackburn’s attempt to fix AI-generated citation errors in Fat Joe’s lawsuit was denied by a federal judge.
Tyrone Blackburn attempted to clean up a legal mess in rapper Fat Joe‘s defamation lawsuit but was blocked by a federal judge after admitting that his court filing contained flawed citations that appeared to have been created by artificial intelligence.
The Manhattan-based attorney, who represents both co-defendant Terrance Dixon and his own law firm, asked U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon for permission to replace his original motion to dismiss with a corrected version.
Blackburn told the court that his team had discovered “a number of inadvertent citation inaccuracies” and said the changes were necessary “for clarity and accuracy in the record.”
He acknowledged that several legal references in the filing were outdated, incorrect or misquoted, but insisted the mistakes didn’t affect the core of his legal argument. He claimed the errors were unintentional and urged the court to disregard the flawed document.
Judge Rochon denied the request, noting that Fat Joe’s legal team had already filed their opposition. She ruled that Blackburn would have to address the issues in his reply brief, rather than submitting a new amended complaint with fixes.
Fat Joe’s attorneys had already flagged the questionable citations, pointing out missing case names, altered language and formatting that suggested the use of generative AI tools.
In court filings, they said the motion included “misrepresentations and fabrications of legal authority clearly generated by AI,” and listed “at least ten instances” of “hallucinated” case law.
The Bronx rapper is suing Dixon and Blackburn for defamation, accusing them of attempting to extort him by spreading false claims of sexual misconduct and underage relationships.
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The lawsuit describes a coordinated smear campaign that included social media posts accusing Fat Joe of having relationships with underage girls and murder-for-hire plots.
Fat Joe’s lawyers called Blackburn’s filing “fundamentally untrustworthy” and said he “irresponsibly relied on artificial intelligence-generated content without manual verification.”
They argued that his conduct “overshadows Defendants’ substantive arguments” and urged the court to impose sanctions.
This isn’t the first time Blackburn has been accused of using AI-generated legal citations.
In a separate defamation case involving pastor T.D. Jakes, U.S. District Judge William Stickman ordered Blackburn to pay more than $76,000 in legal fees after submitting filings with false citations and fabricated quotes.
Stickman described Blackburn’s actions as “clear ethical violations of the highest order.”
Jake’s legal team has pointed to the Fat Joe case as further evidence of a pattern, arguing that Blackburn’s repeated use of AI-generated filings shows a disregard for legal standards, even after Blackburn claimed he took classes to educate himself on how to use AI.
The judge in Fat Joe’s case has not yet ruled on the motion to dismiss.
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