Jay-Z is firing back at claims he was involved in an alleged rape against a 13-year-old alongside Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty in 2000.
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The rapper and entrepreneur, whose given name is Shawn Carter, was named in an amended civil lawsuit that was first filed by an anonymous accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” in October.
In her claim, the woman accuses Combs of drugging and raping her when she was 13 years old as an unnamed “male celebrity” and “female celebrity” participated.
The lawsuit was lodged by Tony Buzbee’s Buzbee Law Firm, which has filed more than 150 lawsuits against Combs, who has been in federal custody since his Sept. 16 arrest at a Manhattan hotel after police charged him with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
According to NBC News, before the lawsuit was refiled Sunday, “Carter received a letter from Plaintiff’s counsel requesting a mediation to resolve this matter.”
But Jay-Z, 55, called the legal manoeuvre nothing more than “blackmail.”
In a statement posted on his Roc Nation account on Instagram and X, Jay-Z says Buzbee was attempting to get him to settle to avoid public embarrassment.
“What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No sir, it had the opposite effect! It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a VERY public fashion. So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!” the 24-time Grammy winner wrote.
The Big Pimpin’ hitmaker then challenged Doe’s attorneys to go to police and “file a criminal complaint.”
“These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case,” Jay-Z continued.
Jay-Z hit out at Buzbee, saying he has “neither honour nor dignity.”
The musician then reflected on how the “heinous” allegations will affect his family, which includes his wife Beyonce and children 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and twins Rumi and Sir, 7.
“My only heartbreak is for my family,” he wrote. “My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.”
In a statement to PEOPLE. Combs’ attorneys also denied Doe’s allegations, calling her lawsuit a “shameless publicity stunt.”
“This amended complaint and the recent extortion lawsuit against Mr. Buzbee exposes his barrage of lawsuits against Mr. Combs for what they are: shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs,” the statement said.
Elsewhere in his lengthy response to being named in the lawsuit, Jay-Z said his “heart and support goes out to true victims in the world” and warned that Buzbee has made “a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same.”
“I’m not from your moral world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honour. We protect children, you seem to exploit people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable. I look forward to showing you just how different I am,” he concluded.
After Jay-Z’s fiery denial, Buzbee issued his own retort on Instagram alongside a throwback photo of himself in military uniform.
“I won’t be bullied or intimidated,” Buzbee wrote.
In Jane Doe’s original lawsuit, which was obtained by Variety, Deadline and NBC News, the woman that she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement and given a drink that made her “feel woozy and lightheaded” at a party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.
“Looking for a place to rest, Plaintiff entered what she believed to be an empty bedroom so she could lie down for a moment,” reads the lawsuit.
She alleges that Combs entered the room with “a male and female celebrity” and “aggressively approached Plaintiff with a crazed look in his eyes, grabbed her, and said, ‘You are ready to party!’”
Combs then threw the girl toward another male celebrity, who is referred to in the lawsuit as “Celebrity A.”
“Plaintiff was held down by Celebrity A who vaginally raped her while Combs and Celebrity B, a female, watched. After the male celebrity finished, Combs then vaginally raped Plaintiff while the Celebrity A and Celebrity B watched. Combs attempted to force Plaintiff to perform oral sex on him, but she resisted by hitting Combs in the neck; he stopped,” the lawsuit adds.
After the alleged assault, the woman says she “fell into a deep depression which continues to affect every facet of her life.”
Since his arrest in September, Combs has been hit with a number of lawsuits accusing him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a number of minors.
Meanwhile, Anna Kane, the ex-wife of Edmonton Oilers star Evander Kane, has also been revealed as one of Combs’ accusers.
Kane was ordered to disclose her identity if she wanted to proceed through the courts, according to legal documents first obtained by TMZ.
“I had hoped to use a pseudonym in pursuing justice for what happened to me as a teenager,” Anna said in a statement. “Defendants’ demand that I use my name was an attempt to intimidate me, but I am not intimidated. I am prepared to proceed and hold accountable those who have harmed me.”
Kane says Combs and two others gave her drugs and alcohol when she was a teenager back in 2003 and says she was “viciously gang-raped” by the three men in a bathroom while in and out of consciousness.