Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, had been added to a claim initially laid against P. Diddy. Now those charges against both have been dropped.
Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, had been added to a claim initially laid against P. Diddy. Now those charges against both have been dropped.
By Frances Vinall
February 16, 2025 — 8.29am
A woman who accused hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, better known as Diddy, and rapper Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, of raping her when she was 13 years old has dropped her lawsuit against both men.
The suit against all defendants was voluntarily dismissed on Friday (US time) with prejudice, which means the plaintiff cannot bring the same claim again, documents from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York show.
The woman’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not stated in court documents why the lawsuit was withdrawn.
In a statement, Carter, who is married to fellow musician Beyonce, said it was a “victory” that the allegations were dismissed, describing them as “frivolous, fictitious and appalling”. He called for the courts to protect equally victims and those “falsely accused”.
“The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed,” he added.
Carter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said it had been a “false case” that never should have been brought.
Carter and his team have consistently portrayed the lawsuit as a money grab. “He never settled, he never paid one red penny, he triumphed and cleared his name,” Spiro said Friday.
The lawsuit was brought by an Alabama woman who said Carter and Combs had drugged and raped her at a party hosted by Combs after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. It was originally filed solely against Combs in October, but was amended in December to include Carter as a defendant.
Combs’s legal team said in a statement the dismissal was “yet another confirmation that these lawsuits are built on falsehoods, not facts”.
Advertisement
Loading
Combs is still facing dozens of other civil lawsuits related to sexual misconduct, abuse of women and other accusations, as well as criminal charges of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering. He is awaiting trial from behind bars in New York.
Accusations against Combs snowballed after his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, better known as the singer Cassie, came forward in 2023 with allegations that he had physically and emotionally abused her. CNN then released footage from 2016 that appeared to show Combs kicking Ventura and dragging her across the floor of a Los Angeles hotel hallway.
Combs apologised for his actions in the video, but has mostly denied wrongdoing. “Sean Combs has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor,” his legal team said on Friday, adding that the dropped lawsuit was “just the first of many that will not hold up in a court of law”.
Some of the accusations against Combs revolve around his notorious parties, which he had been hosting since at least the late ’90s and which are now alleged to have included coerced sexual activity, known as “freak offs”, and other illegal acts.
Washington Post
Get a note direct from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
