Jay-Z Accuser Recants Sexual Assault Claims in Court
A woman who accused rapper and entrepreneur Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter of sexual assault has recanted her allegations, stating in a sworn court declaration that her claims were false and that she never met him. The reversal, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, marks a major turn in a high-profile case that had drawn intense media attention and reshaped the legal battle between Carter and the attorney who once represented her.
The anonymous accuser, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe,” wrote in an 11-page declaration that “Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever,” according to NPR.
Background of the Case
Jane Doe originally filed a civil lawsuit in 2024 claiming that Carter and media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped her in 2000, when she was 13 years old. At the time of the filing, she was represented by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who had filed more than a dozen sexual harassment lawsuits against Combs.
The suit initially referred only to an unnamed “male celebrity” before being amended in December 2024 to publicly name Carter. Both men denied the allegations, and Carter characterized the claims as an extortion campaign. Jane Doe dropped her lawsuit against both men in early 2025.
Carter then sued Buzbee and Jane Doe for malicious prosecution and defamation in federal court, alleging they conspired to pressure him into a secret settlement. He separately filed an extortion suit against Buzbee in California state court.
The Declaration
In her new declaration, Doe stated that “there is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter” and that she understood her “false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone,” Courthouse News Service reported.
According to the filing, Doe’s legal claim began when she responded to a Facebook ad in late 2024 seeking people with sexual assault claims against Combs, who had just been federally indicted on sex trafficking charges. Doe said the ad “triggered memories of being raped” when she was a minor.
She alleged that the October 2024 complaint was filed “without conducting any independent investigation, background inquiry, or due diligence, and without obtaining any corroboration of the allegations.” She further stated she was never provided with a draft of the complaint before it was filed and did not know it had been filed until weeks later.
Doe said she began to doubt her claims against Carter in January 2025, and she also began doubting that she had ever attended a party with celebrities. She said she received no compensation for the declaration and was not promised any.
Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said in a statement that his client “maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr. Carter.” He added that she “sincerely and unconditionally apologizes to Mr. Carter and his family,” Rolling Stone reported.
Buzbee Pushes Back
Buzbee, the primary remaining defendant in Carter’s New York malicious-prosecution case, disputed the significance of the recantation. “We have multiple lawyers (at least four) who dealt with Ms. Doe long before she met me. She gave the exact same story to each,” he told Rolling Stone. “If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that’s new information.”
Buzbee has also argued that sending a demand letter before filing suit “is not and will never be ‘extortion.’” In a September 1 motion to dismiss Carter’s malicious-prosecution claims, Buzbee and his co-counsel called the lawsuit “improper” and “abusive.”
The declaration was filed alongside a notice that Carter was voluntarily dismissing Doe as a defendant in his New York suit, leaving Buzbee and his law firm as the remaining targets.
Earlier in September, a California appellate court upheld the dismissal of Carter’s separate extortion suit against Buzbee. Associate Justice Anne Richardson wrote that the record contained “no evidence Buzbee accused Carter of raping Jane Doe while knowing those statements to be false or with reckless disregard as to whether they were true.”
What’s Next
Doe’s declaration directly bolsters Carter’s malicious-prosecution case, which requires showing that Buzbee lacked probable cause or acted with malice. While Doe does not assert that Buzbee knew the claims were false, she claims he and other attorneys failed to investigate before filing. Buzbee counters that his firm and a referral firm conducted investigations that led him to believe the accusations were credible.
The developments unfolded as Carter marked the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, with concerts at Yankee Stadium and an HBO docuseries exploring his legacy.
Separately, Combs is serving a four-year federal prison sentence after being convicted on prostitution-related charges in July 2025. He was acquitted on more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges, and dozens of civil claims against him remain pending.
The coming months will likely turn on whether Carter’s legal team can persuade a court that Buzbee’s conduct crossed the line from aggressive advocacy into malicious prosecution — a high bar that Doe’s recantation alone may not clear.