Top rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, legal name Shawn Carter, was accused in a lawsuit Sunday of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 allegedly along with fellow rap artist Sean “Diddy” Combs.
A federal lawsuit originally filed in October by Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee in the Southern District of New York listed Combs as a defendant, but was refiled Sunday to include Carter.
The anonymous accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” claimed the sexual assault happened after she was driven to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party and is seeking unspecified damages.
In a lengthy statement responding to the “idiotic claims,” Carter assailed Buzbee’s “network of conspiracy theorists” and called his lawsuit a “blackmail attempt.”
“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?” Carter said in a statement released by his entertainment company Roc Nation. “These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) December 9, 2024
Buzbee has filed several lawsuits in recent months — withholding all the 120+ complainants’ names — accusing Combs of assault and rape, and pledged to name several high-profile individuals who enabled the rapper’s alleged illegal activities.
“It’s a long list already, but because of the nature of this case, we are going to make sure damn sure we are right before we do that,” he noted, adding, “These names will shock you. Many powerful people…many dirty secrets.”
The refiled lawsuit claims 13-year-old Jane Doe was drugged and raped by Carter and Combs at a house party after the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.
From NBC News:
The lawsuit says a friend dropped her off at the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall. She did not have a ticket, and she approached various limousine drivers to try to gain access to the show or an after-party.
One driver, the lawsuit says, told her that he worked for Combs and that she “fit what Diddy was looking for.” He invited her to a party after the show and told her to return to his car later in the evening after he transported Carter and Combs, the suit says.
Later, the driver picked her up, the suit says, and after 20 minutes they arrived at a white house with a U-shaped driveway, the suit says. She had to sign a document she believed was a nondisclosure agreement on arrival — and did not receive a copy — to enter the party, which the suit says was filled with celebrities and people doing marijuana and cocaine.
She was offered a drink that made her feel “woozy, lightheaded and felt [like] she needed to lie down,” the suit says, and she went into a room to rest.
Shortly afterward, the suit says, Combs and Carter entered the room with Combs saying, “You are ready to party!”
That’s when, she alleges, Carter removed her clothes, held her down and raped her while Combs and an unnamed female celebrity watched. She says Combs also raped her as Carter and the woman looked on.
The suit says that she was able to resist being forced to perform oral sex on Combs by hitting him in the neck and that he “stopped.”
Buzbee wrote in the suit that “Carter received a letter from Plaintiff’s counsel requesting a mediation to resolve this matter.”
Carter in response apparently filed a countersuit against the accuser’s attorneys, including Buzbee.
“You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same,” Carter added in his statement Sunday. “I’m not from your 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 honor. We protect children.”
Buzbee posted a picture of himself as a young Marine on Instagram, where he claimed he’s faced “a coordinated and aggressive effort” to stop his case from going forward and insisted he won’t let his clients be intimidated by Carter’s threats.
“I also won’t allow anyone to scare my clients into silence,” he wrote. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant and I am quite certain the sun is coming.”
Combs’s own legal team argued the amended lawsuit was the latest in a series of “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.”
“As his legal team has said before, Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” the statement read.
Federal prosecutors in New York criminally charged Combs in September with racketeering, sex trafficking and other offenses.
He’s currently being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after he was denied bail for a third time last month.
His trial is scheduled for May 5.