Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Jay-Z Sues Rape Accuser in Explosive Lawsuit

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Rap mogul Jay-Z has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the woman who accused him of raping her at a VMA's after-party in 2000 defamed him. Jay-Z is also suing her attorneys, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, accusing them of civil conspiracy and malicious prosecution. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes over the lawsuit's explosive claims in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Jack Greiner https://x.com/jackcgreiner CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Jay-Z is firing back. The rap mogul is suing the woman who claimed he raped her. And he's also suing two of her lawyers just weeks after she dropped her lawsuit against him and Sean Combs. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. It's been a little more than two weeks since Jane Doe, a woman who filed a lawsuit claiming that Sean Diddy Combs and Jay-Z raped her 25 years ago, dropped her lawsuit. She dismissed it with prejudice, meaning it can never

be refiled. And now in this lawsuit that Jay-Z has filed, he's claiming that Jane Doe has admitted that the story isn't true, that Jay-Z raped her. But her lawyer, Tony Busby, says she has not recanted her story. There are even more claims made by Jay-Z that, if true, are incredibly shocking about how this unfolded. Jay-Z's lawsuit makes several claims against Jane Doe and her lawyers, Tony Busby and David Fortney, including civil conspiracy, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process. He's also accusing Jane Doe of defaming him. Now, if you've been following this, this really isn't a complete shock. Jay-Z took a scorched earth approach to defending himself against Jane Doe's claims,

issuing statements on social media and filing a number of motions denying the allegations. And Tony Busby, Jane Doe's lead attorney, was in the crosshairs. Jay-Z's suit goes over the woman's claims. She said she went to the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall back in 2000 when she was just 13. Her lawsuit claimed 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. Jane Doe's suit described her being driven to a large white house with a gated U-shaped driveway where she saw and spoke with other celebrities and drank something that made her feel woozy and eventually made her way to a room where there was a bed. The suit stated, 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 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 towards 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 and punching out at the same time, hitting Combs in the neck. Taken aback, Combs stopped his attempt. Now, this woman claimed that she went to a gas station and

called her father, who picked her up. But that part of the story later fell apart. We'll have more on that later. The woman also claimed to have met Benji Madden at the party, but his reps later told NBC News that he and his brother were on tour in the Midwest at the time. Now to the suit filed by Jay-Z, whose legal name is Sean Carter, as you've heard. The allegations he makes are explosive. The suit begins, false, malicious, strategically and tactically calculated in time to inflict maximum pain and suffering on Mr. Carter and in conspiracy with multiple attorneys, including defendants Anthony Busby and David Fortney, who, like her, were soullessly motivated by greed in abject disregard of the truth and the most fundamental precepts of human decency.

The suit continues, these are the only truthful and fair descriptions of Jane Doe's and her lawyer's malevolent efforts to assassinate the impeccable and lifetime-earned character of Sean Corey Carter, who is professionally known as Jay-Z, but more importantly is known as dad and husband and son, and a human being who did nothing to deserve or elicit the wanton depraved attack that Jane Doe, in conspiracy with her lawyers, launched to extort Mr. Carter beginning on November 5th, 2024, through a menacing private demand letter. I want to tell you about a free app I've tried. It's called Upside. It gives you actual cash back on things you buy each day, like gas, groceries, and takeout. Upside gives you real money that you can transfer straight into your bank account. When I pump gas or go to Dunkin' Donuts for a drink, I use Upside, and I've even used it when ordering pizza on the app. Here's how it works. Download Upside, claim an offer for whatever you're buying, and pay as usual using a debit or credit card.

Follow the steps and get paid. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan that QR code that you see right there on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas. Jane Doe first filed her lawsuit in November. At that time, only Sean Combs was named, and the identity of Celebrity A and Celebrity B remained a mystery. The suit states, when their initial extortionate demand letter failed to yield the financial windfall they sought, and after Doe told Busby, with whom she had never spoken before the demand letter was drafted and sent that Mr. Carter did not sexually

assault, Busby pushed towards going forward with the false story against Mr. Carter to make the case better and get them, the lawyers and hers, more money. Specifically, Busby brought Jay-Z into it. Jay-Z's lawsuit points to a number of inconsistencies in Jane Doe's story, many uncovered by NBC News, when a correspondent interviewed her, specifically the inconsistencies about her father picking her up. The suit states, regarding her long pre-dawn drive home with her father, Doe's father told NBC News that he does not recall picking up Doe, which unsurprisingly would have been something that would definitely stick in my mind. He said that he learned of the

alleged assault when Doe was interviewed by NBC News in December and that he did remember once picking Doe up in the middle of the night, but it was a local drive. Based on their address in Rochester, New York, Doe's father would have driven at least five hours and 47 minutes to pick her up. And Jay-Z says just last week, Jane Doe admitted to his reps that the story she told wasn't true. The suit states, Doe has now voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter that the story brought before the world in was Busby himself whom she met for the first time at a coffee shop in Houston on the day of her maliciously false NBC News interview, which is discussed in detail below, who pushed her to go forward with the false narrative of the assault by Mr. Carter in order to leverage a maximum payday. The suit continues. Doe appears to be suffering from personal and financial hardship. She lost custody of her children and her parents, who on information

and belief support Doe, recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Desperate to obtain a payday, Doe hired the Busby Law Firm, which has a long history of whipping up a media frenzy with vague and sensational claims against public figures to extort payments from Mr. Carter under the threat of devastating harm to his reputation. And Jay-Z is claiming the reason why Jane Doe's suit was dismissed was because Tony Busby was denied admission to appear in the Southern District of New York after he had claimed he was allowed to practice there, so they had to dismiss the suit. Jay-Z's suit claims, Faced with his inability to comply with the judge's order in the case against Mr. Carter and facing the threat of punishment by the court,

Busby dispatched Fortney to Alabama to meet with Doe that same day, namely February 13, 2025. During that meeting, Fortney falsely, maliciously, and manipulatively told Doe that the case against Mr. Carter needed to be dismissed as Mr. Carter had made threats against Doe's life and it was too dangerous to continue with the case. Of course, no such threats had ever been made. The next day, February 14th, Jane Doe's lawsuit against Jay-Z and Sean Combs was dismissed. And last week, Jay-Z says after Jane Doe admitted the story wasn't true, her attorneys made threats if he went public with the information. The suit claims, to compound this egregious harm, just last Friday, Busby's and Fortney's co-counsel,

a prominent New York attorney in the now-dismissed false action against Mr. Carter, threatened Mr. Carter's counsel to double down with yet another false public statement by Doe if Mr. Carter publicly revealed her admissions and Busby's and Fortney's misdeeds in Mr. Carter's pending California lawsuit against Busby. Now, if true, that's an incredible allegation that the attorney threatened to put out another false story.

Jay-Z says the allegations have cost him and Roc Nation more than $20 million. That's out-of-pocket losses, emotional harm, humiliation, and harassment. Jay-Z is already suing Tony Busby in California, where he lives. So what does Tony Busby have to say about this? I emailed him to find out. In a statement, Busby said, this new case alleges the same claims as the other one they pieced together and filed in Los Angeles. Like the one in L.A., this new case in Alabama also has no legal merit. Sean Carter's investigators have repeatedly harassed, threatened, and harangued this poor woman for weeks, trying to intimidate

her and make her recant her story. She hasn't and won't. Instead, she has stated repeatedly that she stands by her claims. These same groups of investigators have been caught on tape offering to pay people to sue me and my firm. After speaking with Jane Doe today, it appears that the quotes attributed to her in the lawsuit are completely made up or they spoke to someone who isn't Jane Doe. This is just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in

due course. We won't be bullied or intimidated by frivolous cases. So to make sense of all of this, I want to bring in Jack Greiner. He's a First Amendment lawyer with the Farooqui law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jack, your first thoughts on Jay-Z kind of firing back after this whole debacle over this rape accusation. He's suing for defamation, specifically targeting for defamation Jane Doe. Yeah, it's interesting. Typically, there is a privilege for parties when they file a complaint that they are not subject to defamation. And the idea is that we don't want to discourage people from pursuing the courts as a remedy. So I think he on the defamation count, I think he's got a bit of a hurdle to get

over here. That is typically considered an absolute privilege. Now, if he can prove that Jane Doe was misusing the system to achieve another goal, I think he might have an argument. But as I say, typically, you cannot base a defamation claim on what somebody says in a civil complaint. What I find interesting is the fact that he is claiming I mean, he is claiming that just last week, Jane Doe, after dismissing this lawsuit with prejudice, her attorneys had to take that action, obviously, on Valentine's Day, that she has admitted to his representatives that this story that Jay-Z raped her back in the year 2000 after the VMAs, that it wasn't true. That to me is astonishing. And the fact that she went on NBC News and gave an interview and said, yeah, I might have some inconsistencies. There may be some things that don't match up, but my story is on the whole true. Is that potentially where the defamation comes in? Because she not only filed the lawsuit, but then went on NBC News, which was broadcast all over the world.

You know, the Internet exists now. You can log on and watch this stuff any time of the day. No, I think that's exactly right. And I think that's why he's going to Jay-Z is going to really talk about the NBC interview because she does not have a privilege outside of the courtroom, outside of the legal pleading. You know, there's no privilege. And that's that that's a little hard sometimes for people to get their arms around. But because you can literally be inside the courtroom, court in session and pretty much say what you want.

If you step outside of that courtroom and give a press conference, you are no longer covered by the privilege, even if all you do is repeat what you said in the courtroom. So it's a little bit of an oddity in the law, but that is the law. So I think the NBC interview is going to be a problem. And I think her admission, obviously, is very problematic for her. But even without that, you know, I think the complaint does a good job of laying out just the inconsistencies. And they were able to talk to people who she said she talked to that night, for example, who just weren't there, you know, who said, oh, I'm there.

I wasn't at the VMA. I was on tour in the Midwest. So, you know, I think she's really allowing the inconsistencies to overwhelm the story. I don't know that we'll ever know the full truth. But just, you know, the idea that she got a ride, a five-hour ride or whatever it was from her dad who says he doesn't remember anything like that. Very problematic. Yeah, it seems like there are a number of problems here. One thing that it's in an exhibit, you know, the transcript of the NBC News interview, it's in an exhibit.

But it talks about how she said she has autism. She's on the autism spectrum. It sounds like she has some issues in the lawsuit. Jay-Z claims, you know, this is a woman who's got financial issues. She doesn't have custody of her children. She's living with her parents in Alabama. Doesn't sound like she has a very good life and that she somehow gets hooked up with Tony Busby, who's a very flamboyant attorney and who made a show out of saying, I'm going to go after Sean Combs.

And then Jay-Z gets kind of brought into this whole thing and that this was all for a big payday. It sounds like Jay-Z is basically saying these people tried to shake me down, thinking I was going to just write a check when I was not identified, that there was a demand letter. I was going to just write a check to make this go away. And I didn't. And then they decided to kick it up to the next level. So, I mean, he lays out a compelling case for possibly this being what happened. Yeah, no, I agree. And, you know, as a lawyer, I would not have had my client go on go on NBC with an to do an interview. But I think, as I recall from the complaint, the lawyer was sitting there in the interview with her.

So, you know, clearly it wasn't her going rogue on the lawyer. He facilitated it. And I don't know if he just, I don't know, if he felt that he didn't have another card to play. So he doubled down. He doubled down. But it's curious to me. It's a curious strategy. Yeah, it's a very curious strategy.

It said that, you know, she was in Houston. So obviously the law firm or NBC News maybe flew her to Houston to do this interview. I mean, it would have been a big scoop. So maybe they did that and flew her in. And she meets with this lawyer and sounds like they had some inklings that something might be amiss, according to Jay-Z. Now, this is all Jay-Z's side of the story. You know, we need to hear the other side of the story and filings from Tony Busby and his co-counsel, David Fortney. You know, the thing that's interesting to me is the fact

that Tony Busby and his co-counsel are not accused of defamation in this suit. I would assume that's because they didn't go on NBC News and talk about this. There were maybe a tweet here and there from Busby, but they probably are protected under the privilege you mentioned earlier. But they are accused of civil conspiracy and abusive process and a malicious prosecution. These are some pretty serious allegations. can't just run an interview if they have reason to doubt what the interviewee is saying is truthful. There's potential liability there. I suppose he didn't want to take it to that level, but they're not, as I say, I'm a little bit surprised he didn't name NBC just to add another, you know, beat pocket to this thing.

But but I think probably he's legitimately upset with Jane Doe and he's legitimately upset with her with her lawyers and less so with with NBC. But I mean, the notion of an abusive process. That's not a you know, that's a tort. You study first year law school and you don't hear much about it after that. So in my case, we're talking 47 years that, you know, I've thought about abuse process. But it does seem to, if the allegations prove true, I think he's got a pretty good case because the whole idea is you are not supposed to improperly use the courts to to shake down somebody. And that seems to be the case here. So, you know, I I think it's it's going to be an interesting case.

And I if if again, if the allegations are true, it's hard to blame Jay-Z for taking the aggressive posture that he's taken. Yeah. As I say, if it's true, I applaud him for standing his ground. Yeah. He's been very aggressive from the beginning. I mean, Scorched Earth is kind of like probably being very delicate in describing how he fought this. I mean, he he went to battle. He went to war with this. He says he's lost in excess of $20 million. I mean, most of us can't imagine even losing that much money, anywhere near that amount of money. So he's lost a fortune, even for a billionaire such as Jay-Z. I mean, that's nothing to sneeze at.

Well, and I think, you know, to be associated with Sean Combs at this point is, you know, potentially, I would think, career poison. And so I think it's incumbent on him to do his best to clear his name because, you know, that's going to linger and i mean just think about the people who have um sort of dropped off the map uh as a result of sex you know sexual misconduct allegations um louis ck uh you really don't hear much of him anymore uh you know and all the Harvey Weinstein stuff, you know, so I get it and I could see it really being a career, potentially career ending, in fact, career limiting. So I don't like I say, I think it's understandable that he would do what he what he can do. So, you know, I think it's again, if the allegations are true, I think he's doing the right thing. He's he's he's fighting back.

One of the things that's interesting to me is the fact that he's he clearly points out that Jane Doe has financial issues. She has no money. She cannot pay him. So to me, I think really who he's going after here is Tony Busby. Maybe he's looking to bankrupt Tony Busby. He's like, you came after me and you messed with the wrong person. And Tony Busby is the person who, if he's going to get any money out of this,

it's gonna come from Tony Busby who runs a pretty successful law firm. He's not going to get a cent from Jane Doe. And Jane Doe may turn out to be his star witness. Well, that's exactly right. And I think, you know, I think he even mentioned in the complaint that she was living with her parents and her parents recently declared bankruptcy. So there's there's no money to be had there. And I mean, you know, I'm thinking I have no idea about, I don't know Tony Busby. I don't know anything about his law firm, but a 20, you know, if it's a $20 million

hit, uh, that seems like, uh, that would be tough to, uh, to absorb no matter how successful your offer is. Uh, so, you know, it, it, it'll be interesting to see. And I don't, you know, I don't think this is, there's a concept that I'm sure you're familiar with, Internet, you know, called the SLAPP lawsuit, which is stands for strategic litigation against public participation. I don't think this is, falls into a SLAPP lawsuit. I mean, I think that this is, because it's often in a slap lawsuit. You know, it's it's somebody going after a protester, somebody going after somebody who's taking an active role in some sort of form of protest.

So that's not the case here. And it's it's not about the opinions. This is about actual factual misstatements that he he indicates, you know, she made and she made repeatedly. And as you say now, she's admitting to that. So I don't think he's going to have to worry about. And I don't know if Alabama has an anti slap law, but I'd be I'd be really shocked if if they do, even if they do, that Busby would try to claim that this violates any kind of anti-SLAPP law. Well, Tony Busby is saying this is a meritless lawsuit. He says that Sean Carter, Jay-Z, his investigators were harassing this woman, getting her trying to get her to recant her story, and that she stated she repeatedly stands by her claims. But it'll be interesting to see how this plays out because he says it appears the quotes attributed to her in the lawsuit are completely made up or they spoke to someone who isn't

Jane Doe. So I find this really interesting because he's saying this happened late last week, that Jane Doe, Sean Carter, Jay-Z is saying jane doe recanted this late last week tony busby's saying she stands by her story so it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out i remember uh i remember a number of years ago when i think it was a woman named Susan Smith was her. Her children died. Very familiar. Yes. And the police, she went on The Today Show.

She was sort of for a week or so becoming this the face of this poor woman mother who lost her kids. And then, of course, it turned out that she was the one who committed the crime. And, you know, I remember reading that the police were like, hey, keep talking. We'd love it because we're just getting more and more evidence against you. And I kind of sense that the more Jane Doe talks, the more evidence there is that her story was made up because she's just, you know, Mark Twain's famous quote, if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember as much, you know. So I think that she's spinning herself into a problem here the more she talks. So I suspect Sean Combs and his lawyers are like, go ahead, you know, keep it up. It's just going to help our kids.

We'll see how it plays out. Jack Reiner, thank you so much. OK, thank you. It's great to see you too. And again, Tony Busby says that this woman, despite dismissing that lawsuit with prejudice, stands by her story. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.