After the woman who accused him of rape fully recanted her allegations in a sworn statement last Thursday, Jay-Z is hoping her reversal can revive his California-based extortion and defamation claims against lawyer Tony Buzbee and his law firm. In a new petition for rehearing first obtained and reported by Rolling Stone, the rapper and entrepreneur, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, is asking a California appeals court to reconsider its recent refusal to reinstate his extortion and defamation lawsuit that a lower court dismissed last year. He says the woman’s new retraction, first reported by Rolling Stone, amounts to “explosive new evidence” that should allow his “meritorious claims to proceed” in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he first filed them two years ago.
Fairness and due process require this court to grant rehearing,” his new appellate filing argues. In the woman’s sworn declaration, signed Thursday in her home state of Alabama, she said her sexual assault allegations were false, that she had never met Carter, and that she had disclosed certain “mental health conditions” to one of her lawyers before Buzbee’s law firm publicly named the Grammy-winning rapper in her lawsuit in December 2024. I have never met or spoken to Mr.
Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever,” the woman wrote in the 11-page declaration filed in Manhattan federal court as part of a separate malicious prosecution case brought by the rapper. Carter,” she continued under penalty of perjury. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone.” In his petition for rehearing, Carter says the California appeals court relied heavily on the idea that Jane Doe dropped her rape lawsuit against him on Feb. 14, 2025, to “protect herself from harassment and invasion of privacy.” He argues that her new declaration tells a different story.
The woman now says she agreed to dismiss the rape case after telling her lawyers she had “doubts about [her] claims,” and after one of the lawyers allegedly traveled to Alabama to have her sign the dismissal papers. The sexual assault case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice under an agreement in which Carter promised that neither he nor his agents would contact or interact with her. Carter or anyone acting on his behalf,” the woman said in her new declaration.
I did not authorize a settlement.” Carter’s petition argues that Buzbee sought to dismiss the lawsuit against Carter not to shield the woman from harassment, but “to protect himself” from a pending sanctions motion. It said the trial court correctly concluded Carter failed to show Buzbee made statements about the woman’s claims with actual malice. Related Content Right-Wingers Are Mad Anti-Welfare Ad Isn’t Racist Enough Trump Supposedly Offered to Sell U.S.
The Trump-Loving Texas Republican Sounding the Alarm on Data Centers How Trump Became Mob Boss of the United States “The record contains 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. To the contrary, Buzbee submitted declarations showing his firm’s and [a referral firm’s] investigations led him to subjectively believe in the truth of the accusations,” Associate Justice Anne Richardson wrote in the unanimous ruling from California’s Second Appellate District. Carter first sued Buzbee in late 2024, alleging the prominent Houston lawyer knowingly advanced false claims when he sent a demand letter in early November seeking money to resolve allegations that Carter had raped Jane Doe.
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