The Jane Doe who accused Jay-Z and Diddy of sexual assault now says her attorney, Texas lawyer, Tony Buzbee, pushed her to include Jay-Z’s name in a sexual assault suit filed last December, according to an audio recording released by Jay-Z’s legal team and obtained by ABC News.
The Jane Doe also tells private investigators in the recording that Sean Carter, better known as Jay-Z, was there when the assault happened, but did not participate in the abuse.
This comes just weeks after the Jane Doe dropped her suit against Jay-Z and Diddy alleging the music superstars sexually assaulted her when she was 13 at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000. Diddy remains in custody facing similar charges in a slew of separate cases.
Jay-Z “was there” but he didn’t have anything to do with the abuse, the tape says
EXCLUSIVE: "This person cannot be allowed to sort of hide from the reality that this was a false accusation."
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 12, 2025
Even after the sexual assault lawsuit against Jay-Z was dismissed, his attorney speaks to @aaronkatersky about why the rapper is suing his former accuser for defamation. pic.twitter.com/TdJZDZe4PZ
Good Morning America shared the audio recording March 12 this year. In it, a private investigator asks the former accuser, referring to Jay-Z, “He was just there but he didn’t have anything to do with any sexual acts towards you.” The Doe responds, “Yeah.”
Jane Doe also says her lawyer, Buzbee, “was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him, with Jay-Z.” In the recording, investigators ask if she knows why Buzbee wanted Jay-Z added, and she says, “No.” Her former suit, filed in October last year, only named Diddy initially. Jay-Z was added two months later. The suit also then mentioned an unnamed woman present during the assault.
“The recording is a fabrication,” Buzbee said
JAY-Z IS suing Anthony Buzbee for defamation & extortion.
— 💎🍾 (@TheRocSupremacy) February 17, 2025
After getting the false allegations lawsuit dismissed with prejudice, Jay is continuing his promise to Buzbee & showing just how different he is. JAY-Z lost at least one $100 million in contracts due to the lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/7BxN0WoTjn
In response to the bombshell recording, Buzbee told Page Six he spoke with Jane Doe after ABC News contacted him about releasing the audio, and her initial position has not changed. “The recording is a fabrication,” Buzbee said.
Buzbee added, “The investigators tormented and harassed and tricked that poor woman and took what she said out of context and secretly recorded her. She stands by her claim that Jay-Z was there at the party and that he assaulted her. She has never wavered on that point, not once.”
Jay-Z strongly denied the Jane Doe’s accusations in December, and in early March filed a defamation suit against attorneys Buzbee and David Fortney and the accuser, alleging what she said happened was knowingly false and “strategically and tactically calculated and timed to inflict maximum pain and suffering on Mr. Carter,” according to Variety.
Jay-Z’s suit also alleges that Jane Doe was having financial difficulties and filed the suit to “obtain a payday.” After Jay’s defamation suit was filed, Buzbee declared that his client dropped the suit because she was “frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters.”
Referring to the allegations, Buzbee’s client declared after the suit was dropped, “Although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York Action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z.”
“I was not prepared to undergo years of attacks, intimidation, and harassment, and ultimately chose to dismiss my claims after certain negotiations among the attorneys involved in the New York Action,” she added.
In December last year, Jay and Diddy’s accuser, now 38, spoke with NBC News and defended some “inconsistencies” about what she said happened that night more than 20 years ago at the VMA after-party. She said, “I made some mistakes,” but stood by her allegations.
After Good Morning America aired the tape in which she is heard telling investigators Buzbee pressured her and Jay-Z wasn’t involved, Jay’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told ABC News, “The tape speaks for itself.”
Spiro added, “She says, in no uncertain terms, Mr. Carter did not do this. It is effectively a lie, and the only reason Mr. Carter is even involved in this is because she was pushed to involve him, pushed to include him by a lawyer.”
Published: Mar 12, 2025 01:43 pm