Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against the woman who alleged in a now-withdrawn complaint that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped her when she was 13, arguing the woman had made false and defamatory statements about him for financial gain. Jay-Z also said in the lawsuit that the woman and the lawyers who filed her complaint, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, “were soullessly motivated by greed, in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency.”
The lawyers and Buzbee’s law firm were also named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in federal court for the Southern District of Alabama, where the woman referred to in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe” lives. Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, alleges they collectively caused harm to his personal and professional reputation. The woman withdrew her lawsuit last month with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. She had added Jay-Z as a defendant in December, two months after the suit was filed against Combs in federal court in New York City.
In the lawsuit, she alleged the two men raped her in 2000 when she was 13 at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in Manhattan. She said a limo driver for Combs offered her a ride to the party at a private residence. Jay-Z’s lawsuit cites inconsistencies in the woman’s account that were reported by NBC News.
Credit: NBC News