A lawyer for Jay-Z argued in a filing on Monday that the woman who on Sunday accused the rapper of raping her when she was 13 must reveal her identity or drop the lawsuit altogether.
In the lawsuit, originally filed in October, a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” sued Sean “Diddy” Combs for allegedly raping her at a party following the the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, when she was 13. The suit was amended on Sunday to include the allegation that Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter) was also present and participated in the assault.
Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro said in a filing in Manhattan federal court on Monday that the Jane Doe has not provided substantial evidence to justify her anonymity, saying her “vague assertions of potential harm fall far short of the stringent requirements.”
“Mr. Carter deserves to know the identity of the person who is effectively accusing him — in sensationalized, publicity-hunting fashion — of criminal conduct, demanding massive financial compensation and tarnishing a reputation earned over decades,” Spiro wrote. “He has never been accused of, let alone engaged in, any sexual misconduct.”
Spiro also pointed to other sexual misconduct lawsuits against Combs — who was recently denied bail for a third time as he awaits trial for sex trafficking charges — brought forward by this woman’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, which Spiro said do not meet the criteria to proceed anonymously.
In a statement on social media Sunday, Jay-Z wrote that he had anonymously sued Buzbee, claiming that the lawyer was trying to blackmail him.
When Buzbee wrote that he had sent a request for mediation to resolve the matter, Jay-Z responded saying, “What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle.” He went on to accuse Buzbee of “fraud” and write “I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!”
Buzbee responded again saying that “my firm sent his lawyer a demand letter on behalf of an alleged victim and that victim never demanded a penny from him.” He went on to say that Carter “has tried to bully and harass me and this plaintiff” and promised to “litigate the facts in court, not in the media.”
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