JAY-Z — the rapper and hip-hop mogul born Shawn Carter — has filed a lawsuit against the Jane Doe who accused him and Sean "Diddy" Combs of raping her when she was 13, calling the allegations "false and malicious."
The accuser came forward last December, and admitted to inconsistencies in her story shortly thereafter. She went on to drop the filing against Carter in February.
JAY-Z and his attorneys claim that Doe and her lawyers, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, carried out the accusations as an "evil conspiracy" to exhort a settlement. According to the document obtained by Billboard, Doe has now "voluntarily admitted" to Carter's team that he did not assault her, and that Buzbee "pushed" her to make the allegations.
Carter is suing the accuser and her attorneys for counts of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, defamation and civil conspiracy, claiming that they exploited the legal system to "assassinate the impeccable and lifetime-earned character of Shawn Corey Carter."
"Defendants devised and executed their plan to accuse Mr. Carter of sexual assault and used national news and media outlets to disseminate the fabricated accusations to millions despite the falsity of the accusation," the filing reads. "Defendants' actions were willful and purposeful in order to maximize the reputational harm to Mr. Carter and induce Mr. Carter to pay them."
In a statement to Billboard, Buzbee denied Carter's allegations, writing, "This case is baloney and has no legal merit. 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 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. This is just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in due course."
Carter's lawyers claim that, in addition to the old lawsuit, he's facing new "extortionate threats" from Buzbee. Doe's attorneys reportedly warned them last week that, if they were to reveal the statements wherein she admitted her story was false, they would issue a press release claiming the accuser had been "harassed" by JAY-Z's team and she "dropped the lawsuit only because she was afraid for her life."
"Thus, the threats of extortion and further defamation continue to this day, necessitating that Mr. Carter take action to prevent unscrupulous actors from further preying on him," the rapper's legal team wrote. Carter is seeking assumed and actual damages, plus punitive damages.