One of the most high-profile lawsuits against disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was dropped on Friday as the woman behind it — a Jane Doe who had accused Combs and Jay-Z of raping her at an after-party for the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000 when she was 13 — filed to voluntarily dismiss her suit with prejudice. This means she will not be able to bring the case again.
The Cut has contacted the accuser’s attorneys, Tony Buzbee and Antigone Curis, for comment on her decision to withdraw. Meanwhile, Combs’s legal team offered a statement calling Buzbee — who has threatened to bring as many as 300 suits against the rapper — a “1-800 attorney” whose complaints “are built on falsehoods.”
“For months, we have seen case after case filed by individuals hiding behind anonymity, pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit,” the statement read. “Just like this claim, the others will fall apart because there is no truth to them. Sean Combs has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor. No number of lawsuits, sensationalized allegations, or media theatrics will change that reality.”
Responding to the filing, Carter’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement, “The false case against Jay-Z, that never should have been brought, has been dismissed with prejudice. 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.”
While Combs faces dozens of lawsuits accusing him of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, this Jane Doe’s claims were especially explosive. Filed in October, her original complaint alleged the rapper and one of his celebrity friends had raped her at a VMAs after-party in 2000 while an unnamed famous woman watched. Her filing stated she was approaching limousine drivers outside the show to see if any of them could get her in, when Diddy’s offered to bring her to an after-party. Once she arrived, according to the suit, she was given a drink that left her feeling “woozy and lightheaded,” so she found a room where she could lie down. She claimed Combs came in with the male and female celebrities in tow, telling her she looked “ready to party.”
In December, Doe amended her filing to identify Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, as the male celeb. In the suit and a subsequent interview with NBC News, she alleged Carter had raped her first, followed by Combs, before she was able to get away.
Combs’s legal team denied the allegations from the start, and Carter came out with a strongly worded denial as soon as he was named. He suggested the communication from Buzbee was a “blackmail attempt” and described the allegations as “heinous in nature” in a statement posted to the X account for Roc Nation, his entertainment company.
Gesturing toward inconsistencies in the accuser’s accounts, Carter and his attorneys vehemently denied the allegations, filing to have the woman’s identity revealed and the case dismissed. Meanwhile, Buzbee told NBC News the woman stood by her story, small incongruities aside. “Our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory,” he said in December. “We will continue to vet her claims and collect corroborating data to the extent it exists. Because we have interrogated her intensely, she has even agreed to submit to a polygraph. I’ve never had a client suggest that before.”
Responding to Doe’s filing to drop the case, Carter celebrated the “victory” on Roc Nation’s X account.
“The frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed,” he wrote. “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. I would not wish this experience on anyone. The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed.”
Carter is currently suing Buzbee for what he believes was “naked extortion” and defamation. As for Combs, he’s awaiting trial in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center on federal sex-trafficking and racketeering charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. At the time of this writing, he still faced more than 40 other civil suits apart from this withdrawn complaint.