A lawsuit accusing Shawn Carter popularly known as Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 has been dismissed.
The anonymous plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe, voluntarily withdrew the case, court records show. The dismissal, filed by her attorney Tony Buzbee, states that the lawsuit is “voluntarily dismissed, with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled in its current form.
The lawsuit, which initially targeted Diddy in October 2023 before Jay-Z was added as a defendant in December, alleged that both men assaulted Jane Doe after an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty in 2000.
However, the case faced significant scrutiny, particularly after Jane Doe admitted in a December interview that “not all the facts are clear” and acknowledged, “I have made some mistakes. I may have made a mistake in identifying.”
Tribune Online reports that Jay-Z vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “frivolous, fictitious, and appalling” in a statement issued by his entertainment company, Roc Nation.
“This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims,” he wrote.
Jay-Z also emphasised the emotional toll the accusations took on his family, stating, “The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones, and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
His attorney, Alex Spiro, echoed these sentiments, asserting that the case “never should have been brought.”
In a statement to the BBC, Spiro praised Jay-Z for standing firm against the allegations, saying, “By standing up in the face of heinous and false allegations, Jay has done what few can – he pushed back, he never settled, he never paid 1 red penny, he triumphed and cleared his name.”
Jay-Z had previously accused Jane Doe’s legal team of attempting to “blackmail” him into a settlement, a claim he said only strengthened his resolve to fight the case publicly.
Last month, he formally requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit, citing inconsistencies in Jane Doe’s account.
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