Jay-Z accused of sexual assaulting girl as rapper accuses lawyer of extortion scheme
A new complaint in Manhattan federal court alleges Jay-Z, legal name Shawn Carter, attacked the girl in 2000 with Sean "Diddy" Combs.
A new lawsuit accuses rapper and business mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 with Sean “Diddy” Combs, and it was filed by a lawyer whom Carter is suing for extortion.
The complaint accuses Carter and Combs, both 55, of attacking the girl during an afterparty for the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7, 2000.
Attorney Tony Buzbee of Houston, Texas, filed it Sunday night in a Southern District of New York lawsuit first filed against Combs and his companies on Oct. 20.
Buzbee also asked the judge to again allow the woman, who lives in Alabama, to proceed anonymously, which Carter’s lawyer Alex Spiro opposed in a 29-page filing that asks for “either dismissal of the allegations or disclosure of the Plaintiff’s identity.”
“These claims are not about justice for victims. Nor are they about giving victims of sexual violence a voice. Instead, they are merely the next chapter in Attorney Buzbee’s sprawling extortion saga — a saga whose aim is base and measured in dollars,” the filing reads.
Spiro asked U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to expedite her consideration in a two-page letter that calls the accusations “meritless and frivolous.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Carter is entirely innocent. This is a shakedown,” wrote Spiro, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP in New York City.
Spiro said Buzbee “continues to amplify false narratives, exploiting the legal process to generate media attention and damage Mr. Carter’s reputation.”
“This relentless campaign underscores the need for a fast-track hearing to address these issues promptly and prevent further harm,” Spiro continued.
Carter’s company Roc Nation posted a first-person statement from him on social media Sunday night that called Buzbee “a deplorable human being.”
“I’m more than prepared to deal with your type,” the statement said. “You claim to be a marine?! Marines are known for their valor, you have neither honor nor dignity.”
Carter also said the 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 wrote.
In response, Buzbee posted a photo of himself as a Marine and wrote that he “won’t be bullied or intimidated.”
“People will see through this effort to discredit me and my clients and the truth will be revealed. I also won’t allow anyone to scare my clients into silence,” Buzbee wrote. He described a “coordinated and aggressive effort” to harass his kids and contact his clients and employees.
Buzbee also wrote on X that his client “never demanded a penny from him.”
“Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation,” Buzbee wrote.
Spiro included screenshots of the posts in his opposition to the anonymity request and said they make clear the lawsuit against Carter “is not about his client, but is about his personal spat with Mr. Carter.”
“These tactics are designed to silence the other extortion victims who, like Mr. Carter, have been targeted by Attorney Buzbee—not based on the their perceived culpability, but the depth of their pockets. Attorney Buzbee’s tactics send a clear message: any individual who resists extortionate demands will face public retaliation through highly publicized lawsuits,” according to the filing.
Later on Monday, Buzbee wrote on X that Carter’s extortion claims “are bogus and laughable.”
“What you are seeing played out now is a coordinated and desperate effort to focus the public’s attention on me personally to avoid attention on the allegations being made by my clients,” Buzbee wrote.
The extortion lawsuit was filed against Buzbee in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Nov. 18 by attorneys Michael T. Lifrak and Mari Henderson, partners at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles.
It says Buzbee and his firm “have threatened to unleash entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault—including multiple instances of rape of a minor, both male and female—against Plaintiff if he refuses to comply with their demands.” It names Carter as “John Doe” and describes him as a “celebrity and public figure who resides in Los Angeles, California.” It has two causes of action: intentional infliction of emotional distress and extortion.
The complaint Buzbee filed against Carter, Combs and Combs’ companies on Sunday has one cause of action: violation of New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act. Buzbee is pursuing the same cause in other lawsuits against Combs.
Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura also included the cause in her lawsuit in November 2023, which Combs settled two days after it was filed. Ventura is the alleged victim in Combs’ criminal indictment, on which he’s been jailed since Sept. 16.
The 21-page complaint says the girl was trying to get into the awards show at Radio City Music Hall when she met a limousine driver who Combs liked younger girls and that the girl “fit what Diddy was looking for.”
The driver later took her the party, where she signed what she now believes was a non-disclosure agreement. The girl said a waitress gave her a drink, and she felt “woozy and lightheaded” after drinking some, so she went to a room and laid down on a bed.
Combs soon entered with Carter and a female celebrity, according to the lawsuit, and “aggressively approached Plaintiff with a crazed look in his eyes, grabbed her, and said, ‘You are ready to party!’” The lawsuit says Combs threw the girl against a wall, then threw her o a bed and began removing her clothes.
“Plaintiff was held down by Carter as he vaginally raped her, while Combs and Celebrity B watched,” according to the lawsuit. “Combs then stepped forward and vaginally raped Plaintiff while Carter and Celebrity B watched.”
The girl ran from the home to a gas station, according to the lawsuit, where “a female clerk noticed her distress and allowed her to use the phone.”
“Plaintiff called her father, admitted that she had lied about her whereabouts, and asked him to pick her up. Plaintiff’s father arrived to pick her up shortly before dawn,” according to the lawsuit.
Buzbee, a licensed lawyer in Texas since 1997, filed the case with Andrew Van Arsdale of the Ava Law Group in San Diego, California, and Antigone Curis of Curis Law, PLLC, in New York.
Judge Torres on Nov. 6 “provisionally granted” their request for the plaintiff to proceed anonymously, saying she “made a preliminary showing that her interest in anonymity outweighs the interest of the public and any prejudice to Defendants.”
“However, the balance of these interests may shift as this matter proceeds, and Defendants deserve to be heard on the issue,” Torres wrote.
Buzbee filed a new request to proceed anonymously on Sunday when he filed the amended complaint naming Carter as a plaintiff.
Other judges overseeing lawsuits against Combs have done the opposite of Torres and ordered plaintiffs to identify themselves.
Torres’ colleague in the Southern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, rejected Buzbee’s request for an anonymous plaintiff in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Tennessee woman who says Combs raped her in 2004 when she was a college student in Brooklyn.
Vyskocil, a 2019 Donald Trump appointee, rejected Buzbee’s reconsideration request on Nov. 12, and he filed a new complaint naming the woman later that day.
U.S. District Jessica G.L. Clarke, a 2023 Joe Biden appointee, issued a similar order in February in a lawsuit from a woman who says Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment President Harve Pierre raped her in 2003 when she was 17.
Clarke, however, said the woman did not have to identify herself until after she ruled on dismissal motions. The judge then issued her order on Dec. 5 dismissing Bad Boy and Diddy’s company Daddy’s House as defendants but keeping Combs and Pierre. The woman’s attorneys at Wigdor Law LLP, which also represents Ventura, filed a new complaint identifying her the next day.
Buzbee has filed more than 20 other lawsuits against Combs in the Southern District of New York since he announced at an Oct. 1 press conference that he had 120 people with potential cases.
Combs does not have lawyers working lawsuits filed since his criminal case began in September, so Buzbee’s requests to proceed anonymously have been unopposed until now.
As of late Monday, Judge Torres, a 2013 Barack Obama appointee, had not addressed Spiro’s request to expedite her consideration of the anonymity request. Buzbee also had not responded to the request.
Carter appeared Monday night with his wife, megastar singer Beyoncé, and their daughter Blue Ivy at the Hollywood premiere of “Mufasa: The Lion King” in Los Angeles, in which Blue voices Kiara.
I’ll continue following the litigation, including posting court documents on my BlueSky and X pages shortly after they’re filed. I’m also planning a weekly Substack and YouTube update about all litigation involving Combs, including the lawsuit with Carter.
Court documents:
Oct. 30 Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil rejects anonymity in another lawsuit
Nov. 12 Judge Vyskocil rejects Buzbee’s reconsideration request
Nov. 18 extortion lawsuit against Buzbee
Dec. 8 amended complaint naming Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter
Dec. 8 request to proceed anonyously
Dec. 9 opposition to anonymity
Dec. 9 letter requesting expedited hearing
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