Jay-Z has no intention of walking away from 2024 without continuing to put up a fight against rape allegations.
Three days after a New York-based federal judge refused the “Empire State of Mind” rapper’s efforts to have claims that he, the incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs and a still unnamed female Celebrity B repeatedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old over 24 years ago dismissed and the Jane Doe plaintiff unmasked, Jay-Z and his longtime lawyer Alex Spiro are back today for another kick at the judicial can.
As Combs’ May 5 criminal sex trafficking trial looms, Jay-Z and the Quinn Emanuel partner are betting the calendar and geography will help them get the horrific matter tossed out.
“Plaintiff cannot recover for her sole claim under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act (the GMV Law), as a matter of law, because the statute does not have retroactive effect,” wrote Spiro in a two-page letter to Judge Analisa Torres Monday announcing the latest attack on the Tony Buzbee- represented Jane Doe’s First Amended Complaint. “Plaintiff asserts a violation of the GMV Law for conduct that purportedly occurred in September 2000. But the GMV Law was not enacted until December 19, 2000, three months after the FAC claims the conduct occurred, and cannot apply retroactively to create a cause of action unavailable to Plaintiff at the time in question.”
A trap-setting attorney for the likes of Alec Baldwin and Elon Musk, Spiro is betting big on this new move and taking the risk for himself and Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) that further reprimands from Judge Torres won’t be forthcoming.
To that end, Spiro and his client are doubling down on the timeline aspect of their argument by asserting that Jane Doe’s ability to mount a legal action “expired no later than August 2021.”
With a reference to the now dismissed sexual assault case against a minor that Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler was hit with in late 2023, Jay-Z’s reasoning is that “any viable GMV Law claim is time-barred under New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA), which preempts Plaintiff’s GMV Law claim.” Noting the CVA actually was amended in 2019 with an additional 30 months, “the Courts in this District, however, have recognized that the CVA’s revival period preempts the GMV Law’s overlapping and extended one.” Which, under this argument, means Jane Doe and her Houston-based lawyer Buzbee, who is representing dozens of John Does and Jane Does in civil cases against Combs, are three years too late.
The alleged brutal rape by the trio on a then-minor Jane Doe is purported to have occurred on September 7, 2000 during one of Diddy’s drug fueled so-called “freak offs” just after that year’s MTV VMAs. The allegation was first detailed in a vivid October 20 lawsuit that named Combs for the assaults, but merely mentioned a male “Celebrity A” and a “Celebrity B” as participants.
As raised voices of bribery, and lawsuit trolling came from both sides, on December 8, an amended complaint from Buzbee named Jay-Z as “Celebrity A.” The usual media shielded Jay-Z quickly countered the FAC with a handwritten statement vehemently denying he raped anyone. “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!” the billionaire rapper declared. In the days that followed, letters and notices were filed in the court docket formally denying the charges, seeking retribution from both sides, as well as dismissal and more.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé at the ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ premiere
Gilbert Flores
Adding to it all, Roc Nation founder Jay-Z has been front and center at some high profile events (the December 9 LA premiere of Mufasa: The Lion King ) and not so much at others ( Beyoncé‘s Christmas Day NFL on Netflix’s halftime show) Additionally, Jane Doe handed the defense either a gift or a blunt object, depending how you look at it, with her December 13 NBC interview. In it, she gave a different version of what occurred to her than her own court filings. “I have made some mistakes,” the now middle-aged Alabama resident told NBC News. Yet, now able to stay anonymous due to Judge Torres’ December 26 ruling, Jane Doe and her lawyer Buzbee insist the overall allegations in her action are true, despite some of the particulars not being totally buttoned up.
Spiro was quick to pounce on those inconsistencies in previous filings and, after rejecting Jane Doe’s belief in where she may or may not have been taken that early fall night over two decades ago, he took out a map and pointed to it figuratively. “Even if the GMV Law had retroactive effect — it does not — to prevail, Plaintiff must show that the violative conduct was “committed within New York City,” the letter to the judge states.
“According to the FAC, Plaintiff was driven from Radio City Music Hall to a ‘large white residence with a gated U-shaped driveway’ — a drive that took 20 minutes,” Spiro’s correspondence on behalf of Jay-Z goes on to say. “This is where the alleged assault took place. The FAC’s description of the residence in question, however, combined with public records, confirms that any such residence — to the extent it existed at the time — would have been located outside the territorial boundaries of New York City. As such, assuming the well-pled factual allegations are true — they are not — they cannot plausibly state a claim for relief.”
Usually one to slap back as hard as he’s whacked, Jane Doe’s attorney Buzbee has not responded to request for comment from Deadline, not in the court docket or on social media. If he does have something to say on either of those trio of options, this post will be updated.
Assuming it survives this latest dismissal missive, this civil case will drag out for years. It is looking highly unlikely to settle at this point, if for no other reason than Jay-Z’s West Coast extortion suit against Buzbee. So, if this takes years to reach a jury resolution and all the appeals are exhausted, those years could see Diddy behind bars already for life if the 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder is found guilty in his criminal trial later this year. Which, with Justice’s slow march, has lose, lose written all over it.
