Jay-Z has filed a new motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl.
Filed on Wednesday (January 8), the rapper – whose real name is Shawn Carter – and his legal team highlighted what they called inconsistencies in the woman’s account.
The lawsuit against Carter was first filed back in December by a woman who alleges that Jay-Z and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted her at a VMAs party in 2000, when she was 13-years-old.
Carter issued a statement via Roc Nation, denying all accusations and calling them “heinous in nature”. He also dismissed them as a “blackmail attempt” by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Anthony Buzbee.
Combs has consistently denied all allegations raised against him, including this one, and is currently in jail on sex trafficking charges.
In the latest filing by Carter, the rapper and his lawyers requested a monetary sanction be placed on Buzbee, alleging that he failed to adequately investigate the woman’s allegations before he filed the lawsuit.
Jay Z in 2024. CREDIT: Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images
They also cited an interview the woman gave to NBC News last year, in which she stood by her allegations although admitted to “some mistakes” in her account when it came to naming witnesses.
For example, the woman alleged that she spoke to a musician at the event and that her father picked her up after the alleged sexual assault, however, a representative for the musician said he was not in New York at the time, and her father said he had no recollection of collecting her.
Carter’s legal team also pointed out what they consider impossibilities in the claims and argued that “the fact that nearly every step in Plaintiff’s narrative – from her arrival at the VMAs to her interactions with the limousine driver and celebrities to the ride with her father – turns out to be false or highly unlikely casts considerable doubt on Plaintiff’s allegation that Mr. Carter raped her, which he did not,” (via The Guardian).
Accusing Buzbee of allegedly not properly investigating the claims before filing the suit, Carter’s legal team added: “To sign a pleading accusing someone of such a horrific crime without adequately vetting the allegation – particularly when the defendant’s prominence means that the allegation will be repeated in headlines across the world – is deeply wrong and unethical.”
They also called for a monetary sanction to “ensure some measure of deterrence of this sort of conduct in the future”. “If lawyers do not face consequences for such a cavalier effort to destroy another person’s reputation and inflict emotional harm on his loved ones, that tactic will proliferate,” they wrote.
Jay-Z. CREDIT: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
In response to the motion put forward by Carter’s team, Buzbee shared a statement with Rolling Stone, saying that he believes the motion was put forward in an attempt to “bully or intimidate” those involved.
“They think they can bully or intimidate counsel for victims by filing meritless and frivolous pleadings full of lies and half-truths. Again, they are dead wrong,” he said. “We will address the utter lack of merit with his filing with the Court, rather than with the press.”
He also alleged that Carter’s legal team are paid on an hourly basis, “so, they file a lot of junk with the Court”. “With each frantic filing, his team reeks of desperation,” he added. “He and his team think the laws and rules don’t apply to them. They are flat wrong.”
Last month, the lawyer also defended the plaintiff in an interview with NBC, saying that the case was “referred to our firm by another, who vetted it prior to sending it to us”, and adding that the woman “remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory”.
In that same interview, he said that he will “continue to vet her claims and collect corroborating data” and shared that she has also agreed to take a polygraph test if necessary.
As highlighted by The Guardian, the motion put forward by Carter and his team comes following a judge recently denying an effort to dismiss the case entirely.
On December 26, Judge Analisa Torres declared that the woman can proceed anonymously in the case after Jay-Z had sought to reveal her name.
Jay-Z at the 2024 Grammys. Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
The judge pointed to the “weight of the factors” including the “highly sensitive and extremely personal” nature of the claim in making her decision, arguing it “tips the favour of allowing Plaintiff to remain anonymous, at least for this stage of the litigation”.
Before then, Carter’s team sued Buzbee for extortion and defamation, and the latter called the claim “patently frivolous” and added that it “will be dismissed,” per Rolling Stone. “I’ve never said a word about him. This is just another attempt to bully and intimidate me. It just won’t work.”
“I’ve never said a word about him. This is just another attempt to bully and intimidate me. It just won’t work.”
This is a developing story.
English (US) · 