Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter has filed a defamation lawsuit against the unidentified woman who withdrew her rape lawsuit against the hip-hop mogul, alleging that the woman and her legal team made "false and malicious claims” to extort the rapper for financial gain.
Carter's lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Alabama, accuses the woman and her attorneys, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, of being "soullessly motivated by greed, in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency," The New York Times reported.
The suit also states that because of the woman's claims, Carter has faced reputational harm, resulting in Roc Nation losing more than $20 million.
"Doe has now 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," the lawsuit reads.
"She has admitted that Mr. Carter did not assault her; and that indeed it was Buzbee himself . . . who pushed her to go forward with the false narrative of the assault by Mr. Carter in order to leverage a maximum payday," Carter said.
The woman originally sued Carter and Sean "Diddy" Combs for claims of a sexual assault that allegedly occurred when she was 13, following an after-party at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. After a recent interview with NBC News, the woman acknowledged some inconsistencies in her account, stating she had "made some mistakes" recalling the allegations.
After months of defending her claims, the woman's attorneys withdrew her complaint without an explanation. However, in a new declaration filed on Monday at the Los Angeles Superior Court as a response to another lawsuit Carter filed against her attorney, the woman stated she dropped the lawsuit because she was “frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters.”
“Although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York Action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z," she said.
In response to Carter's lawsuit, Buzbee said in a statement, "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."
He continued, "This 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," Buzbee concluded.
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