Jay-Z filed a new motion to dismiss the lawsuit accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl more than 20 years ago, requesting to impose sanctions on the accuser’s lawyer.
The 55-year-old rapper filed the new motion on Wednesday, January 8, after being granted permission to do so by United States District Judge Analisa Torres. In court docs obtained by Variety and Rolling Stone, Jay-Z’s attorney Alex Spiro points to a December 2024 interview with NBC News wherein the Jane Doe accuser admitted to making “some mistakes” within her claims.
Spiro argued that the woman’s attorney Tony Buzbee — who Jay-Z previously accused of defamation and extortion — is claiming Jay-Z committed “a horrific crime without adequately vetting the allegation.”
Referring to alleged inconsistencies in her recounting of the incident, the filing continues, “By any objective measure, the fact that nearly every step in Plaintiff’s narrative — from her arrival at the VMAs to her interactions with the limousine driver and celebrities to the ride with her father — turns out to be false or highly unlikely casts considerable doubt on Plaintiff’s allegation that Mr. Carter raped her, which he did not.”
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The motion also requests monetary sanctions against Buzbee and the Buzbee Law Firm for “alleging facts without a sufficient investigation.”
According to Spiro, “If lawyers do not face consequences for such a cavalier effort to destroy another person’s reputation and inflict emotional harm on his loved ones, that tactic will proliferate.”
Buzbee insisted in a statement to Rolling Stone that he would not be “bullied or intimidated” by the “desperation” of Jay-Z’s attorneys.
“He and his team think the laws and rules don’t apply to them. They are flat wrong,” the statement continued. “They also think they can bully or intimidate counsel for victims by filing meritless and frivolous pleadings full of lies and half-truths. Again, they are dead wrong. … We will address the utter lack of merit with his filing with the Court, rather than with the press.”
News broke in December 2024 that Jay-Z was accused of rape in a civil lawsuit alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs. When the suit was initially filed in October 2024, Diddy, 55, was the only defendant listed. The accusations were refiled to include Jay-Z.
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According to the accuser, the incident took place at an afterparty for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, previously calling out the “blackmail attempt” in a lengthy statement. (Diddy, meanwhile, remains incarcerated after pleading not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges last year.)
Judge Torres previously granted Jay-Z permission to file a motion to dismiss the case against him by February 6. The accuser’s attorneys are able to file opposition papers by February 28, giving Jay-Z the chance to respond by March 14. (The judge has also condemned Spiro’s “relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks” on Buzbee throughout the legal drama.)
Despite the efforts of Jay-Z’s lawyers to throw out the case, Jane Doe has stood by her claims. “Honestly, what is the clearest is what happened to me and [the] route that I took to what happened to me,” she told NBC News in December.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
