For months now, it’s just been headline after headline and lawsuit after lawsuit about and against Sean Combs. Combs is facing dozens of civil suits for his years/decades of rape, abuse and assault. He’s also facing federal criminal charges, and he’s currently in jail in New York as he awaits trial. Over the past year, since Cassie sued Combs and he quickly settled with her, there has been a big movement online to suggest that everyone who ever partied with Combs is guilty of the same crimes, or that they had knowledge of those crimes. There’s been a lot of focus on Jay-Z and Beyonce – Jay and Sean Combs were close friends/co-moguls – but up until now, no one had any story or any evidence of Jay-Z knowledge of or involvement with Combs’ crimes. Well, now a Jane Doe has accused Jay-Z of raping her when she was 13 years old, in the year 2000, at Combs’ house.
Jay-Z, the star rapper and entrepreneur whose real name is Shawn Carter, was accused in a lawsuit Sunday of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 allegedly along with Sean “Diddy” Combs. The anonymous accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” said the assault happened after she was driven to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party. The federal lawsuit was originally filed in October in the Southern District of New York, listing Combs as a defendant. It was refiled Sunday to include Carter. Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who filed the suit, did not comment.
Carter called the allegations “idiotic” in a lengthy statement Sunday evening and alleged that Buzbee was engaged in unprofessional behavior.
“These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?” Carter said in a statement to NBC News. “These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”
Buzbee has filed several lawsuits in recent months — all have withheld their complainants’ names — accusing Combs of assault and rape. This is the first suit in which he has named another high-profile defendant. Before the lawsuit was refiled Sunday, “Carter received a letter from Plaintiff’s counsel requesting a mediation to resolve this matter,” Buzbee wrote in the suit. In response to the letter, which NBC News has seen, Carter filed his own lawsuit against the accuser’s attorneys, Buzbee wrote in the suit.
“You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same,” Carter added in his statement Sunday. “I’m not from your world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children.”
“My only heartbreak is for my family,” Carter said in the statement. “My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable,” Carter added.
In case you didn’t catch the backstory on the legal actions, Buzbee went to Jay-Z’s lawyers and asked to settle this privately, meaning they wanted Jay-Z to give them a financial settlement with an NDA. Jay-Z refused and he’s already countersuing Buzbee and the client, claiming that this is all a blackmail attempt. Jay is also saying that what he’s being accused of is so heinous, he doesn’t know why it’s a civil lawsuit and not a criminal action. I’m including Jay’s full statement (posted to Roc Nation’s social media) below. Compare this with the Cassie-Sean Combs situation – Cassie also tried to settle things privately with Combs before she filed her lawsuit. Combs refused to settle, and he made a lot of noise for 24 hours, threatening to fight Cassie in court. Then he settled. It does not sound like Jay-Z is going to give one inch though. (And yes, it’s bonkers for a 55-year-old man to refer to himself as a “young man.”)
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) December 9, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.