Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter has sued the lawyers and unnamed woman who brought a rape lawsuit against him and Sean “Diddy” Combs last year before dropping it in February, court documents confirm. Jay-Z portrays attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney and their Jane Doe client as co-conspirators whose allegations that he and Diddy drugged and raped Doe when she was 13 years old, in 2000, were knowingly false, malicious, and designed to “inflict maximum pain and suffering” as a means to extort him.
Jane Doe filed her original sexual assault complaint against Diddy last October, alluding to another “male celebrity” who she said had also assaulted her at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty. She later refiled the case with Jay-Z named as the alleged co-assailant. In his new lawsuit, Jay-Z says that, between the original and second filing, Buzbee sent him an “extortionate” demand letter and anonymous lawsuit before naming him publicly. He claims that Jane Doe’s subsequent interview with NBC News was part of a malicious attempt to bring the story “before the world in court and on global television.”
The lawsuit argues that Jay-Z “does not commence this action lightly” or seek to expose Jane Doe’s identity, but instead to “hold Doe accountable for her willful defamation.” He suggests Buzbee, Fortney, and other lawyers did not make sufficient efforts to vet her story and find details that he claims cast doubt on her credibility. The legal team said in December that a prior law firm had vetted the allegations and its own vetting process was ongoing.
Buzbee defended his client in a new statement, writing, in an email to Pitchfork, that the lawsuit “has no legal merit.” He continued, “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 hasn’t, and 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. After speaking with Jane Doe today, 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. 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.”
