Jay-Z has issued a statement after being accused of raping a thirteen year old girl in one of the many lawsuits filed against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. That lawsuit, originally filed in October, was amended this weekend to formally identify Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, as a co-defendant.
That development quickly prompted denials from Carter, who also took aim at the lawyer behind the lawsuit, Tony Buzbee, who he dubs an “ambulance chaser in a cheap suit”, and a “deplorable human” who is prone to legal “theatrics”.
Addressing the attorney directly in a written statement, Carter says, “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!” Anyone who would “commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?”, he continues.
In the amended lawsuit, an unnamed woman claims that she was assaulted by Combs and Carter at an after party that followed the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. She says she began to “feel woozy” after consuming a drink at the party and subsequently found herself in a bedroom, where she was raped by Carter and then Combs.
Buzbee’s law firm has been proactively seeking clients with allegations against Combs in recent months, setting up a bespoke hotline for people to call. He has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the musician already and has promised dozens more will follow.
As for the allegation against Carter, Buzbee’s firm says that it reached out to discuss “a mediation to resolve this matter”. However, the rapper and Roc Nation boss responded by “filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit” and, it’s alleged, by “orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation” against Buzbee and his team.
It emerged last month that Buzbee had been sued by an unnamed “celebrity and public figure” who claims that the lawyer was going after “anyone with any ties to Combs”, making “vile” allegations against those people in connection to their presence at Combs-hosted parties, and then hoping to pressure said people into financial settlements. It seems likely that was Carter’s lawsuit.
In his new statement, Carter dubs a letter sent by Buzbee as a “blackmail attempt”, adding that the attorney had “calculated” that the “nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle”. In fact, says Carter, the letter “had the opposite effect”, making him “want to expose” Buzbee “for the fraud you are in a very public fashion”.
The lawyer, Carter goes on, has “made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same". Only Buzbee’s “network of conspiracy theorists” will believe “the idiotic claims”, he insists, claims which, “if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable”.
“My heart and support goes out to true victims in the world”, Carter adds, “who have to watch how their life story is dressed in costume for profitability by this ambulance chaser in a cheap suit”.
Combs, of course, is fighting dozens of lawsuits like this one accusing him of sexual assault and other misconduct, and is also currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Last week two of Combs’ companies were dismissed from one of those lawsuits, on the basis that a 2022 change to New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which extended liabilities to companies connected to alleged violent acts, does not apply retroactively. However, Combs himself is still fighting that lawsuit along with all the others.