Jay-Z seeks dismissal of assault case that his lawyer calls a ‘sham’

Jay-Z’s lawyers plan to ask a judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the rapper of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000, pointing out what they described as “glaring inconsistencies” that emerged in an NBC interview with the person who accuses him, who was not named in the process.

In the lawsuit, which was filed last week, the unidentified accuser said she was raped by Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) and Sean Combs at a party at a private residence following the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City in 2000. Carter vehemently denied the accusation.

NBC News published an interview with the accuser on Friday night in which she acknowledged inconsistencies in her account but maintained that her allegation of assault was true.

The woman’s lawsuit alleged that after the encounter, she was picked up by her father, whom she called from a gas station. But NBC reported that her father, who would have to drive hours from his home in upstate New York to pick up his daughter after the party, did not remember doing so. The father was also not identified in the report.

The author, who now lives in Alabama, also told NBC that she had spoken to musician Benji Madden, a member of the band Good Charlotte, at the awards after-party that night. But Madden, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing in his prosecution, was on tour in the Midwest at the time.

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Carter, wrote a letter Friday night to U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres saying Carter intends to file a motion to dismiss the complaint, citing the NBC report. “The interview debunks the author’s claims for what they are: a hoax,” he wrote in the letter.

And on Monday, Spiro spoke to reporters at the Manhattan offices of Roc Nation, Carter’s entertainment empire. He provided a timeline of the night in question that he said undermined the author’s account and displayed a photo that he said showed Carter at a nightclub after the Video Music Awards, not at a private residence.

“The story doesn’t work,” he said. “It doesn’t match.”

Tony Buzbee, the lawyer for the woman who sued, wrote in an email that his client remained “adamant” about her claim, even as he acknowledged that he may have been mistaken about which celebrity he encountered at the party that night. “We are talking about events from 20 years ago,” he said in an email. He said he didn’t think the nightclub photograph of Carter “proves or disproves anything.”

“Courts exist to resolve factual disputes,” he said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to do that in a news article.”

When the plaintiff initially filed suit in October, Combs was the main defendant, and Carter was referred to only as “Celebrity A.” Combs, who faces federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges and more than 30 civil lawsuits, has denied sexually abusing anyone.

Buzbee, a Houston lawyer, then amended the claim to add Carter, one of the country’s most prominent music industry figures, setting off a multifaceted legal dispute.

Before Buzbee filed the amended claim naming Carter, his firm wrote a letter to Carter seeking to discuss the plaintiff’s claims. Carter’s lawyers then filed a lawsuit — as an anonymous plaintiff — accusing Buzbee of trying to extort a financial settlement over false claims.

So Buzbee’s company filed a petition in Texas asking a judge to stop the law firm representing Carter, Quinn Emanuel, from contacting his employees and their relatives, accusing the company of harassment. The judge denied the request.

Each side defended its practices as typical legal procedures.

On Monday, Spiro — a well-known lawyer whose famous clients include Elon Musk, Alec Baldwin and New York Mayor Eric Adams — spoke to the press in an effort to discredit the author.

In trying to have the complaint dismissed, Spiro, in his letter to the judge, accused Buzbee of violating a federal rule that requires a lawyer to “conduct a reasonable investigation” into the facts of his client’s complaint before signing his name to a case.

Buzbee, in an email, defended his firm’s handling of his client’s claim, saying that although the case was referred by another law firm, at least three lawyers from his firm interviewed her before filing the claim. changed. He said a background check was done on her, an investigator was hired to verify some details of her claim and she signed two affidavits related to her account.

“Our conduct has been beyond reproach and will continue to be so,” Buzbee said.