A lawsuit filed against Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs was dropped by the anonymous plaintiff. Photos / Getty Images
A lawsuit filed against Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs was dropped by the anonymous plaintiff. Photos / Getty Images
Warning: This article mentions sexual assault.
In her complaint, the anonymous plaintiff had accused the rappers of drugging and sexually assaulting her at a party more than two decades ago, when she was 13.
A woman who had 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 dropped her lawsuit against them on Friday.
The suit against all defendants was voluntarily dismissed 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 on Friday evening. It was not stated in court documents why the lawsuit was withdrawn.
In a statement on Friday, Carter said it was a “victory” the allegations were dismissed, describing them as “frivolous, fictitious and appalling” and calling for the courts to protect victims and those “falsely accused” equally.
“The trauma that my wife, my children, loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed,” he added.
Jay-Z with his wife Beyonce and daughter Blue Ivy Carter in December 2024. Photo / Getty Images
In a statement, Carter’s attorney Alex Spiro said it had been a “false case” that never should have been brought forward. Carter and his team had 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 on Friday.
The lawsuit was brought by an anonymous 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 against Combs in October but was later amended in December to include Carter as a defendant.
Combs’s legal team, in a statement, said the dismissal was “yet another confirmation that these lawsuits are built on falsehoods, not facts”. Combs is facing dozens of 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 he had physically and emotionally abused her. CNN then released 2016 footage 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 the dropped suit 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.
