In a new civil suit, a woman has accused Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her at a party in New York City in 2000, when she was just 13 years old. Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, denied the allegations and accused the anonymous woman’s lawyer of blackmail.
According to the suit, which was originally filed in October before being refiled on Sunday to include Carter as a defendant, the alleged assault took place at an after-party for the MTV Video Music Awards. The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, says that a friend dropped her off at Radio City Music Hall, where she approached several limousine drivers in an attempt to gain access to the VMAs. Doe says one driver who claimed to work for Combs told her that she “fit what Diddy was looking for” and drove her to an after-party, where she signed what she now believes to be an NDA and was handed a drink that made her feel “woozy” and “lightheaded.” Doe says she went into a room to rest, at which point Combs, Carter, and an unidentified female celebrity entered. She says Combs told her she was “ready to party” before Carter allegedly removed her clothes, held her down, and raped her while the female celebrity looked on. Doe says Combs then began assaulting her, but she hit him in the neck and escaped to a gas station, where she called her father.
Combs denied the allegations through his attorneys, and Carter posted a lengthy X statement on his Roc Nation account. He called the civil suit “heinous in nature” and asserted that he would not give “ONE RED PENNY” to Doe’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, a Houston-based personal-injury lawyer who has filed at least 20 other claims against Diddy.
“Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?” Carter wrote in his statement, in which he accused Buzbee of blackmail. His “only heartbreak,” he added, is for his family. “My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn the loss of innocence.”
NBC News reported that, prior to the suit’s refiling, Carter received a letter from Buzbee requesting mediation. Carter responded by filing his own lawsuit against Buzbee and his legal firm, accusing them of “shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him or else publicly file wildly false horrific allegations” against him. In a newly edited Instagram post that was originally shared in November, Buzbee alluded to Carter’s suit as a “last-ditch attempt” to prevent him from revealing names in public lawsuits. “We won’t allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers to intimidate or silence sexual assault survivors,” Buzbee wrote. In a separate response to Carter’s latest X statement, Buzbee maintained Doe “never demanded a penny” from the billionaire and that his team “only sought confidential mediation.”
“She is emboldened,” Buzbee said of Doe. “I’m proud of her resolve.”
The Cut has reached out to a representative for Carter for comment. We will update this post when we hear back.
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