Hip-hop superstar Jay-Z is suing the anonymous woman who accused him of raping her when she was 13 for defamation and much more. Along with the rape accuser, Jay-Z is also suing her attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney. The rapper was filed on March 3, 2025, accusing them of being a part of an “evil conspiracy” to extort him by using “false and malicious claims.”
The lawsuit comes on the heels of Jane Doe and her lawyers withdrawing their strong rape allegations against Jay-Z, legally named Shawn Carter. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of Alabama, insisted that the allegations were “completely fabricated” by “Jane Doe” and her legal team because they were “soullessly motivated by greed.”
The rape allegations in Jane Doe’s lawsuit claimed that Jay-Z and music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs raped the woman at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party that was held in Manhattan in 2000. Jay-Z strongly denied the allegations, and the lawsuit against him was dismissed in February. In Jay-Z’s lawsuit against the accuser, he claims she admitted to his legal team that the story was fabricated.
According to HipHopDX, the lawsuit reads that “Doe has now voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter” that the story of her being raped was “a false, malicious story.” “She has admitted that Mr. Carter did not assault her,” the complaint continued, adding that attorney Buzbee coerced her into going “forward with the false narrative of the assault by Mr. Carter in order to leverage a maximum payday.”
Based on the lawsuit, the woman first met Buzbee at a coffee shop in Houston, which was the day she did an interview with NBC about the allegations.
Jay-Z is suing the woman and her legal team for defamation, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and civil conspiracy. The lawsuit claims that the rapper’s business suffered because of the allegations. As a result, he is seeking punitive damages and $20 million in lost business.
In response to the lawsuit, Buzbee told CNN that the suit “has no legal merit.” He expressed that his client “stands by her claims” even though Jay-Z’s “investigators have repeatedly harassed, threatened, and harangued this poor woman for weeks trying to intimidate her and make her recant her story.”
Buzbee said the investigators were also filmed “offering to pay people to” sue him and his firm. He described the lawsuit as “another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman.”