Jay-Z has filed a defamation lawsuit against his Jane Doe rape accuser and her attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, claiming the woman had admitted her sexual assault allegations were false.
The rapper said he has lost $20 million in contracts and suffered extreme “mental anguish” since the woman accused him in December of assaulting her alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13. She dropped his name from the suit on Feb. 14 after admitting to inconsistencies in her story.
Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, sued on Monday alleging malicious prosecution, abuse of process and civil conspiracy on the part of Doe, Buzbee and Fortney.
In the suit, his lawyers claim the alleged victim “voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter that the story brought before the world in court and on global television was just that: a false, malicious story,” according to a copy obtained by The Guardian.
Buzbee immediately shot back, saying the case has “no legal merit” because Jane Doe never withdrew her allegations, just the lawsuit, and that she did so because Jay-Z’s reps were intimidating her.
“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,” Buzbee told People in a statement. “
Indeed, the woman told TMZ on Monday that two people claiming to be investigators for one of Jay-Z’s lawyers had shown up outside her home and tried to convince her to sign an affidavit stating that her allegations were false, which she refused to do.
The now 38-year-old woman had initially accused Combs of drugging and raping her at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party he had hosted in 2000. Combs has been jailed on numerous other pending charges including racketeering and sex trafficking since his arrest in September.
In December the alleged victim amended her complaint to include Jay-Z, which he said amounted to extortion. The hip-hop mogul vociferously denied the accusations and asked a judge to remove his name from the complaint.
