Jay-Z sues rape accuser and lawyers, saying they knew claim was false
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Lawyers for rapper Jay-Z say the woman has admitted that she made up her rape story.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Julia Jacobs
LOS ANGELES – American rapper Jay-Z filed a lawsuit on March 3 against the anonymous woman who withdrew her rape lawsuit against him in February, asserting that she and her lawyers knew the allegations were false but proceeded with the claim anyway.
The lawsuit, brought in federal court in Alabama, where the woman lives, was filed against both the accuser and her lawyers – Mr Tony Buzbee and Mr David Fortney.
In the suit, Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, said the woman admitted to his representatives that she made up the story.
But in a statement, Mr Buzbee said the suit has no legal merit and that the woman continues to stand by her account.
The woman originally sued Jay-Z in 2024,
In this case, the plaintiff accused Jay-Z and Combs of raping her when she was 13, at an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000.
After an NBC News interview with the plaintiff highlighted inconsistencies in her account, she acknowledged that she made some mistakes in presenting the allegations.
For about two months, her lawyers defended the veracity of her allegations in court papers. But in February, they withdrew her claim with no public explanation.
In the new lawsuit, lawyers for Jay-Z assert that the plaintiff – who is not identified – has “voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr Carter that the story brought before the world in court and on global television was just that: a false, malicious story”.
The suit quotes the woman as saying Mr Buzbee pushed her towards “going forward with the false story against Mr Carter”. The complaint makes no explanation of how or why she made that admission, and it does not specify to whom.
‘Completely made up’
In a statement, Mr Buzbee pushed back against the contention that the woman recanted her account of rape.
“After speaking with Jane Doe today, it appears that the quotes attributed to her in the lawsuit are completely made up, or they spoke to someone who isn’t Jane Doe,” the statement said.
“This is just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in due course. We won’t be bullied or intimidated by frivolous cases,” he added.
The suit ratchets up an already heated legal battle between Jay-Z and Mr Buzbee, a Houston lawyer who has filed more than three dozen suits against Combs.
Jay-Z already sued Mr Buzbee in Los Angeles in 2024, alleging that a letter the lawyer sent outlining his client’s rape allegations and demanding a “confidential mediation” amounted to extortion.
In a hearing last week, a judge indicated he was inclined to dismiss the extortion claim, but to allow a separate defamation claim to proceed. The judge has not made a formal order in the case.
In an affidavit in the Los Angeles case, which was filed on March 3, the woman said she was approached at her home in February by two people who identified themselves as investigators working with Jay-Z’s lawyer. She said she refused to sign papers recanting her allegations against him.
The affidavit said she withdrew her original suit because she was “frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters, and the likelihood that I would have to be publicly named and subjected to public attacks”.
The lawsuit in Alabama brings a defamation claim against the woman, citing the NBC News interview. It accuses her and her lawyers of malicious prosecution, among other complaints.
In the NBC report, the accuser said she had called her father after being assaulted and that he drove to pick her up.
But the father, who lived hours away in Rochester, New York, said in the report that he did not remember doing so, noting that it would have been “something that would definitely stick in my mind”.
The accuser also recalled speaking to a musician at the after-party who was on tour in another state at the time.
The suit says that as a result of the woman’s lawsuit, Jay-Z faced reputational harm. It also says that his entertainment company, Roc Nation, lost more than US$20 million (S$27 million), though it does not specify how. NYTIMES
