Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Jay-Z Fires Back At Rape Accuser Citing ‘Inconsistencies' in Her Story

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Rap mogul Jay-Z firing back at a woman accusing him of rape and her lawyer after she grants an interview and acknowledges inconsistencies in her story. I'll tell you about Sean Carter's latest legal move and what Sean Diddy Combs has to say about the woman's sit down with a reporter. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Jay-Z's lawyer is doing everything he can to get this lawsuit accusing the rapper of rape thrown out. A 38-year-old woman filed the suit against Jay-Z and Sean Combs back in October.

Starting point is 00:00:41 And at first, Jay-Z wasn't named in the suit but that changed eight days ago when the accuser's flamboyant attorney tony busby amended the suit to include jay-z's legal name sean carter prior to that jay-z was known only as celebrity a in the suit the woman who's identified at this point only as jane doe from Alabama, granted an interview to NBC News, which aired Friday night. And when it aired, Jay-Z's lawyer, Alex Spiro, pounced. He wants this lawsuit thrown out of court. That's how bad he claims things are. First, a little bit of background on the suit. I've told you about it before. The woman claims she went to the MTV Video Music Awards back in 2000 when she was just 13 years old,

Starting point is 00:01:26 and then an after party where she says Jay-Z and Sean Combs raped her at a house as an unnamed female celebrity, Celebrity B, watched. The woman said while outside the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall, she couldn't get in because she didn't have a ticket, so she hung out outside and talked to limo drivers. The lawsuit says one of the limousine drivers she spoke to claimed to work for defendant Combs. The driver told her that Combs liked younger girls and said she fit what Diddy was looking for, and while not allowing her into the awards, the driver invited her to an after-party. The driver stated that he had to drive Combs and others to the after party first, but instructed plaintiff to return to his location after the event and that he pick her up and take her to the after party. The suit describes the woman being taken to a house where she saw and

Starting point is 00:02:17 spoke with other celebrities and drank something that made her feel woozy and eventually made her way to a room where she said there was only a bed. The suit states, soon after, Combs entered the room along with defendant Carter and a female celebrity, Celebrity B. Plaintiff immediately recognized all three celebrities. Combs aggressively approached plaintiff with a crazed look in his eyes, grabbed her and said, you are ready to party. Combs then threw plaintiff toward a wall, causing plaintiff to fall. Plaintiff got up and stumbled, at which point Combs grabbed her again and threw her on the bed. At that point, Carter began removing plaintiff's clothes as she grew

Starting point is 00:02:56 more and more disoriented. Plaintiff was held down by Carter as he vaginally raped her, while Combs and Celebrity B watched. After Carter finished, he stepped back toward the wall. Combs then stepped forward and vaginally raped Plaintiff while Carter and Celebrity B watched. Combs then knocked Plaintiff down and attempted to force Plaintiff to perform oral sex on him. She fought back, standing up quickly

Starting point is 00:03:21 and punching out at the same time, hitting Combs in the neck. Taken aback, Combs stopped his attempt. Now, we still to this day don't know who Celebrity B, the female, is alleged to be. The woman's attorney, Tony Busby, had sent a demand letter to Jay-Z's lawyers when the suit was first filed, seeking mediation. Fast forward to last Friday night, NBC News aired its interview with the woman and posted it on its website. The story quotes the woman as saying, I have made some mistakes in her recollections of that night. The woman, identified as Jane Doe

Starting point is 00:03:55 in the lawsuit led against Jay-Z and Diddy, told NBC News, the woman said she stands by her allegations overall. The inconsistencies in her account of the incident, alleged to have happened 24 years ago, do not necessarily mean the allegations are false. Now, I'll get to what Jay-Z and his legal team are saying about this in a moment. NBC News went on to detail some of the inconsistencies, including that the woman said her father picked her up after the assault, but he told NBC News he doesn't remember that and it would have been a five-hour drive had he done so. The woman also claimed she spoke to Benji Madden at the after party. But his reps told NBC News he was on tour in the Midwest that night, not in New York. I want to tell you about Upside.

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Starting point is 00:05:26 letter to the judge in the case Friday night saying this is a matter of grave importance and he plans to file a motion to strike the lawsuit. Spiro wrote, basic facts in her narrative, the who, what, when, and where are wrong. She claims her father picked her up after the assault. Her own father denies that ever happened. She claims she spoke with Benji Madden at the party that night, but he was on tour in the Midwest at the time, forcing her to admit, I have made some mistakes. I may have made a mistake in identifying. She claims the assault took place at an after party at Mr. Combs' home, but photos that

Starting point is 00:06:01 night show Mr. Combs and Mr. Carter at Lotus Nightclub for the after party. When pressed, the plaintiff admitted she was guessing about key details, including the time it took to reach the venue. She admits she has no single corroborating witness over the last 24 years. Now, Spiro also took some shots at attorney Tony Busby, claiming he didn't vet this woman or the suit before taking it on. He wrote, it is stunning that a lawyer would not only file such a serious complaint without proper vetting, but would make things worse by further peddling this false story in

Starting point is 00:06:35 the press. We are asking this court to dismiss this frivolous case today and we'll take up the matter of additional discipline for Mr. Busby and all the lawyers that filed the complaint. Busby said the firm that referred the suit to his firm vetted the claims and the accuser. In a statement to NBC News, Busby said, Jane Doe's case was referred to our firm by another who vetted it prior to sending it to us. Our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory. 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

Starting point is 00:07:15 agreed to submit to a polygraph. I've never had a client suggest that before. Jay-Z posted a statement on X. Today's investigative report proves this attorney, Busby, filed a false complaint against me in the pursuit of money and fame. This incident didn't happen and yet he filed it in court and doubled down in the press. True justice is coming. We fight from victory, not for victory. This was over before it began. This 1-800 lawyer doesn't realize it yet, but soon. And not to be forgotten, what does Sean Combs' legal team have to say about Jane Doe's inconsistencies? His legal team told me, last week, a lawyer admitted that over 50 people falsely claimed to be victims. Last Friday,

Starting point is 00:08:00 for the second time in a week, a Busby plaintiff has been exposed. This is the beginning of the end of this shameful money grab. I want to bring in Nima Rahmani. He is an entertainment attorney, also a former federal prosecutor. So, Nima, what do you make of this latest move by Camp Jay-Z with them saying, look, there are inconsistencies in this accuser's story? And, Jeanette, litigation is about chess. And, you know, Tony Busby, I think, made some pretty serious mistakes here. He should have known that Jay-Z was going to come out swinging because Busby knew that Jay-Z was the one who filed the

Starting point is 00:08:39 extortion lawsuit against him. So before he unmasked his client, and I understand that she's still proceeding as a Jane Doe, but moved forward with a very serious complaint like this, he should have vetted the allegations. Now, I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but jurors and members of the public might take these inconsistencies to mean that she's lying. So certain things should have been done already, like ask her father if he indeed drove and picked her up that evening. That's the easy question to ask. And I understand that the friend who drove her to the VMAs and after party appears to be deceased, but asked if there's any other percipient witnesses. I think they should have done a little bit more vetting before they move forward with these types of allegations against someone like Jay-Z, who they know is going

Starting point is 00:09:30 to fight them and call her a liar. And Jay-Z is somebody with a lot of resources. He's hired Quinn Emanuel. I mean, that's a heavy hitter law firm in New York. They're not going to take this lying down. So he's fighting this with everything he has and he's putting out statements like crazy on Twitter. And they're really fighting not only a legal battle here, but a PR battle. No question. And, you know, I'm here in Los Angeles and my daughter used to go to school with Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter, Blue Ivy. They have a lot of money. And I have cases against a lot of people in the entertainment industry, including Alex Spiro and Quinn Emanuel.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And you've got to know what their M.O. is because Jay-Z is not just fighting this case. He's fighting for his reputation, for all his business dealings, for his wife. So they are going to drag this victim through the mud. So this is something you need to prepare your client for. And I've sued lots of people in the music industry, Kanye, Lizzo, and I prepare all my clients the same way saying, listen, they're going to call you a liar. We need to make sure every one of these allegations is accurate, because if not, guess what? That's going to help prove their case. We need to have our credibility. We need to have our likability. So this is something that should have been done before. or so we've had two victim interviews one with cnn and one with nbc and the vetting that nbc did was really sort of surface level that should have been done by busby's firm already and you know busby's response was well we got this case referred from another firm that vetted it but

Starting point is 00:11:16 that doesn't really absolve you as your of your responsibility as a plaintiff's lawyer again i'm not saying that this means that the victim is lying. I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, so much less something that happened 24 years ago. But you have to anticipate this if you're Busby and his firm, and I think he did a poor job doing so. One thing that I've noticed, too, is that a week ago when Tony Busby amended the complaint and named Jay-Z, he was putting out tweets and things of that nature. Now he's silent. I mean, he had put out a statement to NBC News after this interview ran. The accuser, I want to say, you know, is standing by her assertions that this was Jay-Z and Sean Combs. But she does admit she may have misidentified other people.

Starting point is 00:12:06 I don't know if that bodes well for this entire thing, but she stands by all of this other stuff. But there are some holes in the story, it sounds like. So he said nothing else on Twitter. There are no other tweets. Do you make anything of that? Potentially, yes. And we know that the best defense is a good offense.

Starting point is 00:12:28 So, you know, there's a small handful of people that defend musicians in these types of cases. And this is their M.O. in all the cases to go after the lawyer and go after the victim. I've been called every name in the book by some of these lawyers. Right. My clients have been shamed. But you brought up a good point. Someone like Benji Madden, right? Another celebrity who, at least according to the complaint, was there. And there's this discussion about his tattoos and their religious significance.

Starting point is 00:12:58 And it turns out he was nowhere near New York on that date. He was touring in the Midwest. So that's a pretty significant statement that turned out to be inaccurate. And maybe Busby is doing a little bit more vetting now. Because anytime you bring a case like this, Ingenet, that's decades old, and the victim admits that she didn't tell anyone, right? There's no contemporaneous report. You really want to corroborate these facts to the extent that you can and do that vetting. And I do think that maybe Busby is doing that now. And maybe that's why he's so quiet, because he's taken some blows, at least in the

Starting point is 00:13:36 court of public opinion. And he wants to make sure that he comes correct next time when he goes after Jay-Z or another celebrity, because this has been a bad week for him and his client. It really does seem like it. And it's interesting to me that the accuser even sat down with NBC News. I don't know if that was the best decision, but somebody obviously made the decision that she should do this interview. Yeah, so this kind of cuts both ways. Oftentimes, lawyers do not want their clients giving interviews because they're giving statements and it can give rise to inconsistencies. You see it time and time again, even in a criminal case, right? Even if your client is innocent, most lawyers will tell their client, advise them, don't talk to law enforcement. Because at trial, those statements can be used against you,

Starting point is 00:14:25 and it's no different. But we are seeing a shift, at least in the PR strategy, by Busby's team, apparently. Because again, now they've given two sit-down interviews with major news networks. The other was not related to Jay-Z, but it's the security guard who was allegedly raped by Combs. That was a pretty extensive interview with CNN, and now we have this NBC interview by this specific victim. But if I'm Busby, I want to make sure that I really start looking for that corroborating evidence to see if there's other victims that may have accusations against Jay-Z because we know oftentimes when there are abusers, they don't necessarily just abuse one person to see if we can do anything to corroborate and bolster this particular case,

Starting point is 00:15:09 because it's hurting a little bit right now. Well, it will be interesting to see what comes of this. I mean, that letter that Alex Spiro sent, I mean, I can see why he sent that. He sent it immediately. I mean, it came out within a couple of hours of the NBC story posting. You know, I'll be interested to see how the judge responds moving forward. But it doesn't I mean, at this point, do you see this not looking good for the accuser? Potentially, again, it's it's just one defeat. We talk about chess, right? Maybe Busby's lost a particular piece, but the case isn't necessarily over. He says he believes his client is insisting on moving forward.

Starting point is 00:15:55 Ultimately, these are factual determinations for a jury, but they need to know that there's going to be a lot of mud that's sling at them over the coming weeks and months until this case goes to trial. We know Spiro's M.O. is going to try to unmask this client. Right. And we've talked about it, how federal judges there's no rule that says that victims of sexual abuse have to remain anonymous. And a lot of the plaintiffs in the Combs cases, the civil cases, they've had to identify themselves. And that may be the case here.

Starting point is 00:16:31 So that would be sort of step one. I would tell my client, hey, you might have to be publicly named. And then, you know, obviously Busby has resources. He has money. He needs to hire investigators and then to go back and do this type of investigation. And again, the easiest step would have been dad because obviously they have access to him. But anyone else that she may have been friends with that can verify that she was even there that evening, right? Just basic steps like that.

Starting point is 00:17:01 Who else was at that after party? Let's contact them. Let's start asking questions. I think that investigation is going to be very, very important because if you lose the court of public opinion, jurors, even though they're supposed to decide the case solely based on the facts and evidence of that case, we've seen time and time again, and we've talked about it, how public opinion matters, right? It can be in the Johnny Depp case. It can be in the Luigi Depp case. It can be in the Luigi Mangione case. It doesn't matter what the case is. So you got to make sure that that's all

Starting point is 00:17:30 buttoned up if you're going to move forward and give these types of interviews and make these types of accusations. Thank you so much, Nima Ravani. I appreciate it as always. Thanks for having me, Anjanette. Talk soon. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Jay-Z Fires Back At Rape Accuser Citing ‘Inconsistencies' in Her Story

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Jay-Z Fires Back At Rape Accuser Citing ‘Inconsistencies' in Her Story

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