Entertainment
Jay-Z fingered in rape case of 13-year-old girl along with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, has been accused in a federal lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000, alongside music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The anonymous accuser, identified as “Jane Doe,” alleges that the assault occurred after she was taken to an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards. According to NBC News, the lawsuit was initially filed in October in the Southern District of New York with Combs listed as a defendant. It was refiled on Sunday to include Carter as well.
The case is being handled by Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who has yet to comment on the accusations.
In response, Carter issued a lengthy statement, dismissing the allegations as “idiotic” and accusing Buzbee of engaging in unethical conduct. The case has sparked widespread attention, though no further details about the proceedings have been disclosed.
“These 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 said in a statement to NBC News. “These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on whether the office is pursuing the case when shown NBC News’ report on the lawsuit.
Buzbee has filed several lawsuits in recent months — all have withheld their complainants’ names — accusing Combs of assault and rape. This is the first suit in which he has named another high-profile defendant.
In a statement, legal representatives for Combs called the suits “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs.”
“As his legal team has said before, Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” the statement read.
Federal prosecutors in New York criminally charged Combs in September with racketeering, sex trafficking and other offenses, and he is behind bars at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after he was denied bail for a third time last month. His trial is scheduled for May 5.
Prosecutors said in a court hearing last month that they are in the process of potentially bringing more charges against Combs in a superseding indictment.
Before the lawsuit was refiled Sunday, “Carter received a letter from Plaintiff’s counsel requesting a mediation to resolve this matter,” Buzbee wrote in the suit. In response to the letter, which NBC News has seen, Carter filed his own lawsuit against the accuser’s attorneys, Buzbee wrote in the suit.
“You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same,” Carter added in his statement Sunday. “I’m not from your world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children.”
The lawsuit claims that in 2000, when Doe was 13, Combs and Carter raped her at a house party after the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.