Hip-hop star Jay-Z has filed a defamation lawsuit against a woman who previously accused him and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her when she was 13 years old.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, asserts that the woman made ‘false and defamatory’ statements about Jay-Z for ‘financial gain’, NBC reports.
The lawsuit also targets attorneys Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, along with Buzbee’s law firm, claiming they were “soullessly motivated by greed, in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency.”
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, argued that the allegations, which were later withdrawn, severely harmed his personal and professional reputation. He had previously claimed that the allegations cost him a monetary loss of over $20 million.
The woman’s identity, which remained as “Jane Doe”, initially filed the complaint against Combs in federal court in New York City in October, later adding Jay-Z as a defendant in December. However, she withdrew the lawsuit last month with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
After the case was dismissed, Combs’ attorneys released a statement declaring, “Sean Combs has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor. No number of lawsuits, sensationalized allegations, or media theatrics will change that reality.”
According to a report on NBC News, the lawsuit points out that images from the night in question reportedly place Jay-Z and Combs at a different location than the one described by the accuser, though their whereabouts for the entire evening remain unclear.
The case has sparked significant media attention, with Jay-Z seeking damages for what he describes as a ‘deliberate attempt’ to tarnish his reputation through baseless accusations.
The allegations against Jay Z were made ahead of the film premiere of ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’, which featured the voice of the rapper’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.