Jay-Z Battles Back: Sues Accuser Over Defamatory Claims

Jay-Z’s legal battle with a woman who accused him of rape is still ongoing.

The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has now filed a defamation lawsuit against the anonymous Jane Doe and her attorneys after she dropped her lawsuit last month. According to Vulture and a lawsuit submitted on March 3, as reported by Rolling Stone, Jay-Z claims that Doe’s allegations—that he raped her with Diddy after the 2000 VMAs—are “completely fabricated.” The lawsuit also states that Doe “voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter” that her claims were false, although it doesn’t provide specifics about that admission. On the other hand, Doe’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, insists that she still stands by her accusation, despite withdrawing her lawsuit. “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,” Buzbee said in a statement. “She won’t. Instead she has stated repeatedly she stands by her claims.” Buzbee is one of the two lawyers that Jay-Z is also suing, along with David Fortney.

Doe first mentioned Jay-Z when she refiled her lawsuit in December of last year. She alleged that she attended the MTV Video Music Awards without a ticket in 2000 when she was just 13. Outside the event, she claimed she was invited to Sean “Diddy” Combs’s after-party, where she accused Diddy and Jay-Z of raping her. Jay-Z has strongly denied these allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” Shortly after, Doe admitted to NBC News that she “made some mistakes” in recalling details of her lawsuit after they pointed out inconsistencies in her story—like the location of the party, other celebrities she encountered, and whether her father picked her up afterward. Nevertheless, Doe still stood by her overall allegation. “Our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory,” Buzbee told NBC at the time.