Jay-Z Seeks Dismissal of Sexual Assault Lawsuit, Calls for Sanctions Against Plaintiff’s Lawyer
American rapper and business mogul Jay-Z is pushing back against a lawsuit that accuses him and Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl at a Video Music Awards after-party in 2000.
In a legal motion filed Wednesday, Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, asked a federal judge in Manhattan to dismiss the lawsuit and impose monetary sanctions on Tony Buzbee, the Texas-based attorney representing the alleged victim.
According to Carter’s filing, the lawsuit contains “substantial inaccuracies” that should have prompted Buzbee to drop the case. One of the key inconsistencies is a statement from the woman’s father, who told NBC News that he had no recollection of driving his distraught daughter home from the party, a crucial part of the lawsuit’s narrative.
“It strains credulity,” Carter’s legal team argued, “that a father—impelled to jump into his car in the middle of the night to undertake a minimum 10-hour round trip to pick up his 13-year-old daughter at a random gas station—would forget the entire episode.”
Another discrepancy flagged by Jay-Z’s attorneys involves the woman’s claim that she spoke with rapper Benji Madden at the party and remembered his distinctive “The Last Supper” tattoo. However, Madden later told NBC that he was on tour in the Midwest at the time and was not present at the event.
Both Carter and Combs have denied the allegations.
Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, criticized Buzbee’s handling of the case, stating that “a single, initial media interview turned up glaring problems that counsel had either ignored or never investigated.”
In response, Buzbee dismissed the inconsistencies as normal memory lapses given the passage of time. However, Carter’s legal team rejected this explanation, arguing, “Calling this a ‘memory lapse’ cannot obscure counsel’s lapses in investigating whether multi-decade-old recollections aligned with reality.”
Jay-Z’s legal filing accused Buzbee of rushing to file the lawsuit without proper diligence and requested that the court impose financial penalties for what it described as reckless litigation.
The lawsuit was initially filed against Combs, his companies, and unnamed accomplices, including “Celebrity A.” Carter was later identified as “Celebrity A” in December, sparking a legal battle between both parties.
In a separate lawsuit, Buzbee has accused Carter’s Roc Nation of attempting to intimidate his law firm and dissuade his plaintiffs from pursuing cases related to Combs.
“This conduct was specifically targeted at our firm so we would not pursue cases related to the Diddy litigation,” Buzbee stated. “But we will not be bullied or intimidated.”
The legal battle continues as the court reviews Jay-Z’s motion to dismiss and Buzbee’s counterclaims.
