Jay-Z is fighting back against the accusation that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old with Sean “Diddy” Combs, filing new paperwork in the Jane Doe’s case that seeks to have the woman reveal her full name or dismiss the lawsuit entirely.
The 55-year-old, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was unveiled on Sunday night as the unidentified male celebrity who a Jane Doe accuser claimed had sexually assaulted her alongside Combs during a VMAs afterparty in 2000. Carter issued an emphatic statement later that night, denying the allegation. He also confirmed that he was the unnamed high-profile celebrity who sued the woman’s attorney Tony Buzbee, claiming the lawyer was “shamelessly” trying to extort him.
“What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle,” Carter wrote in a statement from Roc Nation’s official social media accounts. “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!”
“Sending a basic litigation demand letter and then filing a lawsuit isn’t extortion or blackmail,” Buzbee wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone. “That’s the legal practice. We will respond to Mr. Carter’s filing once we review it. We won’t get bogged down in a silly sideshow that tries to make the lawyers the focus of what are very serious allegations brought by a courageous woman.”
In new court papers filed Monday, Carter’s high-powered attorney Alex Spiro argued for the Jane Doe to file her complaint under her real name, claiming she has not provided legally sufficient reasons why she should be anonymized. “Mr. Carter deserves to know the identity of the person who is effectively accusing him — in sensationalized, publicity-hunting fashion — of criminal conduct, demanding massive financial compensation, and tarnishing a reputation earned over decades,” Spiro writes in court papers.
Carter is also attempting to dismiss the case entirely, claiming the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.
In a letter filed to the court on Monday afternoon, Spiro asked presiding U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to expedite a hearing on Carter’s motion, “due to the highly sensitive nature of this matter and the intense media scrutiny” currently surrounding the rapper. “For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Carter is entirely innocent,” Spiro added in the letter. “This is a shakedown. He is not mentioned, referenced, or implicated in any way in the criminal investigation of Mr. Combs. He is neither a target nor a person of interest in that investigation.”
And hoping to ensure a favorable outcome, Carter’s team requested to put the case before U.S. District Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke, who recently ruled in another civil case against Combs that a 17-year-old who accused Combs and two other men of gang raping her in 2003 could not proceed anonymously. “I had hoped to use a pseudonym in pursuing justice for what happened to me as a teenager,” the woman, Anna Kane, said in a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday. “Defendants’ demand that I use my name was an attempt to intimidate me, but I am not intimidated.”
The new court paperwork takes direct aim at Buzbee, who has claimed to be representing more than 120 men and women in sexual assault cases against Combs and unnamed celebrities, and has filed 20 lawsuits against the jailed Bad Boy founder in the past three months. (There are currently more than 30 civil cases in total against Combs.) Carter’s attorneys claim the rapper has been a “target” of Buzbee’s “extortionate campaign” that has operated “under cover of darkness.”
“That campaign was cynical and calculated to force payment of an exorbitant sum of money — Defendant would have to pay X millions of dollars irrespective of the truth, or else,” Spiro wrote in the court filing. “When Defendant refused to pay and instead took measures to establish his innocence, this unnamed Plaintiff and her self-promoting counsel (whose name has been splashed across headlines and press conferences under auspices of representing her) went to extraordinary lengths to shut down fair defense. But those efforts, too, failed.”
Carter issued a declarative denial of the woman’s claims in a lengthy statement, saying “these allegations are so heinous in nature” and “whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away.”
The Jane Doe accuser, who filed her original complaint in October, claimed that she wanted to attend the Video Music Awards in 2000 and had a friend drop her off near Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan as she tried to find a way into the event. Doe, who now lives in Alabama, alleged that she met a driver who claimed to work for Combs, who took her to the Bad Boy Entertainment founder’s afterparty.
Once at the party, the woman claimed that she began to feel lightheaded after taking a sip of her drink, alleging that she had been drugged. Finding a bedroom, Doe said she tried to rest when Combs allegedly entered the room with Carter and a female celebrity, who is unnamed in the complaint. Combs “aggressively approached Plaintiff with a crazed look in his eyes, grabbed her, and said, ‘You are ready to party!’” the suit alleged. The men allegedly took turns assaulting Doe while the female celebrity watched. The alleged encounter only ended when the woman claimed to have fought back and punched Combs in the neck.
Combs has denied Doe’s claims. “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,” Combs’ legal team said in a statement. “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.”
This story was updated on Dec. 9 at 3:50 p.m. EST to include Carter’s lawyer asking for a judge to expedite a hearing in the case.
