The lawsuit accusing Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of repeatedly raping a minor in 2000 after the MTV VMAs was dismissed on Valentine’s Day, but the bitter relationship between the Jay-Z and attorney Tony Buzbee rages on.
Filed four days before the Buzbee-represented Jane Doe “voluntarily dismissed with prejudice” her claims, Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter) made a declaration in the docket of Los Angeles Superior Court ripping the Texas-based attorney. Rejecting Buzbee’s attempt to have the Roc Nation boss’ defamation and extortion suit essentially gutted, Jay-Z’s February 10 filing says the “career-ending” accusations of assaulting a 13-year-old girl unsurprisingly damaged his business and his family — the former to the tune of $20 million a year.
While not mentioning the NFL, with which Roc Nation has a recently renewed Super Bowl Halftime Show deal, Jay-Z’s declaration makes clear that even if the Roger Goodell-run league was standing by him, others were much less inclined to do so:
“Mr. Buzbee’s actions undermined my relationship, and my company Roc Nation’s relationship, with other businesses in the sports and entertainment space,” the filing states. “We have agreements to produce entertainment programs for certain sporting events. After Mr. Buzbee filed the lawsuit, the media reported that other businesses could end their deals with Roc Nation, and forced one to speak out and address whether these false allegations would end our business relationship.
“Immediately after Mr. Buzbee went public with his false accusations, my company Roc Nation also lost other contracts in the sports and entertainment space that would have generated revenues of approximately $20 million per year.”
The rape of the then-teen Jane Doe is alleged to have occurred on the night of September 7, 2000 during one of Diddy’s drug-fueled parties after that year’s MTV VMAs. A graphic October 20, 2024 lawsuit from Buzbee first only named Combs, but made distinct reference to accomplices cited as male “Celebrity A” and a female “Celebrity B.” Jay-Z was named as “Celebrity A” in a December 8 refiling by Buzbee, which followed separate November 18 suit from a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan-represented anonymous “celebrity and public figure who resides in Los Angeles” (later revealed to be Jay-Z) that went after the Texas lawyer for extortion.
After a flurry of filings, including several unsuccessful attempts at dismissal, one problematic NBC News sit-down featuring the now middle-aged Jane Doe and other media duels, the whole matter was pulled on February 14 by the plaintiff with no explanation by Buzbee.
On the other hand, Jay-Z said in a statement posted that day on Roc Nation’s X feed: “I would not wish this experience on anyone. The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
In fact, on February 10, the multi-Grammy winner also got specific about what he viewed as a hit on him timing-wise when he was publicly named December 8.
“I was harshly criticized by others for accompanying my daughter to the premiere of her movie a day after Mr. Buzbee filed the Jane Doe lawsuit against me,” Jay-Z said of the full-tilt December 9 Los Angeles premiere of the Barry Jenkins-directed Mufasa: The Lion King that he attended with daughter Blue Ivy and his wife Beyoncé. “Media outlets reported that Disney was hesitant over my attendance at the premiere because of the accusations. I feel that Mr. Buzbee purposely filed this lawsuit on the eve of my daughter’s premiere to put me in the position of having to choose between supporting my daughter or hiding to avoid the negative press coverage.
“Buzbee’s assertion that there is nothing ‘extreme and outrageous’ about his false public claims that Mr. Carter is a serial child rapist is erroneous and appalling,” states an accompanying 22-page opposition to defendant’s motion to strike.
Despite all the citations of threats, alleged multiple victims, strong-arming by Buzbee for “something of substance” from Jay-Z for his clients, and the hip-hop icon’s attendance at big NFL games and the Grammys in recent weeks, this could all be DOA now, though a February 25 hearing in downtown L.A. remains on the books.
Deadline reached out to lawyers for both Jay-Z and Jane Doe for comment and clarification on the state of affairs, but the filing of judicial notice Tuesday in LASC may provide a clue.
In that paperwork, Jay-Z lawyer Robert M. Schwartz did note the February 14 dismissal in NYC and stressed, “given that Mr. Buzbee filed the dismissal four days after Mr. Carter filed his opposition to the anti-SLAPP Motion (on February 10), Mr. Carter could not have made the dismissal a part of his opposition.” The attorney added: “The voluntary dismissal with prejudice is relevant to Mr. Carter’s opposition to Defendants’ pending Special Motion to Strike (‘anti-SLAPP Motion’), which attacks the legal and factual bases of Mr. Carter’s claims for extortion, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“The gravamen of Mr. Carter’s claims is that Mr. Buzbee failed to properly investigate Jane Doe’s claims before Mr. Buzbee publicly accused Mr. Carter of rape and threatened to refer him to law enforcement authorities, and then demanded that Mr. Carter pay his client ‘something of substance’ to buy her silence and avoid a ‘public spectacle’ and litigation.”
Schwartz goes on to make another point in today’s filing: “The factfinder in this case can reasonably infer from the voluntary dismissal that Buzbee’s public statements that Mr. Carter had raped Jane Doe were false, making them defamatory.”
Perhaps this is about to become a West Coast war now.
As for Combs, who still faces dozens of assault and abuse civil suits from Buzbee-represented plaintiffs and others, he remains behind bars at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center where he has been since his September 16 arrest. Failing on multiple occasions to get released on $50 million bail and looking at life in prison if found guilty, the Bad Boy Records founder is set to go to trial on racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution charges starting May 5.
It’s unlikely that Jay-Z will be showing up at that event, though even without him it will certainly be a spectacle.
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