Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Billionaire rap mogul Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, filed a lawsuit Monday against an unnamed Alabama woman who accused him and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her in a now-withdrawn complaint.
The suit also names the woman’s lawyers, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, and claims the defendants knew the allegations were false when they undertook “malevolent efforts to assassinate” Carter’s character.
In the court filing, Carter alleges that the woman and her lawyers were “motivated by greed, in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency,” and tried to extort money from the hip-hop star.
The suit also states that the anonymous woman “voluntarily admitted directly to representatives” of Carter that the accusations were false and quotes the woman as saying she was “pushed” by Buzbee “towards going forward with the false story” to – in the words of the lawsuit – “leverage a maximum payday.”
Buzbee, in a statement emailed to The Washington Post late Monday, said he had spoken with Jane Doe that day, and “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.”
Buzbee called the suit “just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in due course.” He added, “We won’t be bullied or intimidated by frivolous cases.”
The withdrawn lawsuit claimed Carter and Combs had drugged and raped the Alabama woman at a party hosted by Combs after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, when she was 13. Combs is facing dozens of lawsuits related to accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking, among other allegations, and is awaiting trial from behind bars in New York. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The woman had originally filed her case against Combs in October, and Carter was added as a defendant in December. The amended complaint sparked a flurry of legal actions from Carter, including a motion to reveal the accuser’s name, as well as a response on social media denying the allegations and accusing Buzbee of blackmail.
The accusations came under scrutiny when the woman shared details in an interview with NBC News that did not line up, including her recollection of which celebrities she had spoken to that night. She later addressed the inconsistencies and said she stood by the allegations.
In February, the woman voluntarily withdrew her lawsuit with prejudice, which means the plaintiff cannot bring the same claim again, The Post reported. The move was celebrated by Carter as a “victory.” It was not stated in court documents why the lawsuit was withdrawn.