Jay-Z has sued the woman who accused him of sexual assault, accusing her and her attorney of “false and malicious” allegations.
Late last year, an anonymous woman, referred to as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit against the rapper and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, accusing them of raping her in 2000 at an MTV VMAs after-party when she was 13 years old. Jay-Z strenuously denied the allegations.
However, in February, the accuser voluntarily withdrew the suit with prejudice, meaning she would not be able to file it again, and she acknowledged that there had been inconsistencies in her original account of the alleged incident.
Now, Jay-Z – real name Shawn Carter – has filed his own suit accusing Doe and her lawyers Tony Buzbee and David Fortney of engaging in an “evil conspiracy” to extort him with “completely fabricated” and “wildly horrific” claims of rape.
As reported by Rolling Stone, the suit was filed on Monday (March 3) and it alleges that Carter’s representatives made contact with Doe and she is said to have admitted concocting her claims about Carter. It alleges that she felt pressure from her legal team to then repeat the claims in a television interview with NBC News.
“Doe has now 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 claims. “She has admitted that Mr. Carter did not assault her; and that indeed it was Buzbee himself – whom she met for the first time at a coffee shop in Houston on the day of her maliciously false NBC News interview – who pushed her to go forward with the false narrative of the assault by Mr. Carter in order to leverage a maximum payday.”
In response, Buzbee said in a statement to Rolling Stone: “This new case which alleges the same thing as another one he pieces together and filed in Los Angeles also has no legal merit. Shawn Carter’s investigators have repeatedly harassed, threatened and harangued this poor woman for weeks trying to intimidate her and make her recant her story. She won’t. Instead she has stated repeatedly she stands by her claims.”
“These same group of investigators have been caught on tape offering to pay people to sue me and my firm. 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.”
Carter is suing for defamation and malicious prosecution, as well as abuse of process and civil conspiracy. He is seeking real and punitive damages, citing damage to his family and reputation and $20million (£16million) in lost business for Roc Nation.
Upon Doe’s original accusations in December, Carter denied the “heinous” claims, hitting out at her lawyers for “getting basic facts wrong”.
When her suit was withdrawn, he said: “The frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed. This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims. I would not wish this experience on anyone.
“The trauma that my wife, my children, my loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed,” the statement continued. “This 1-800 lawyer gets to file a suit hiding behind Jane Doe, and when they quickly realize that the money grab is going to fail, they get to walk away with no repercussions. The system has failed.”
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