Jay-Z has asked a California appeals court to reconsider its refusal to revive his extortion and defamation lawsuit against attorney Tony Buzbee after Buzbee’s former client recanted her r@pe allegation against the rapper. Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, filed a petition asking the court to reconsider its recent decision not to reinstate the lawsuit, which had previously been dismissed by a lower court.
In the filing, Carter argues that the woman’s decision to withdraw her allegations against him constitutes “explosive new evidence” that should allow his claims against Buzbee to proceed.
Carter’s lawsuit had accused Buzbee of extortion and defamation in connection with allegations made by a woman identified as Jane Doe. According to Carter, the court previously dismissed his case in part because Doe had said she withdrew her lawsuit to protect herself from harassment and invasion of privacy.
However, Doe has since said that her allegations identifying Carter were false and that she had never met him. Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said his client continues to maintain that she was a victim of s3xual assault but acknowledged that she had wrongly identified Carter as one of the people responsible.
“Our client maintains that she was a victim of s3xual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr. Carter, and those allegations were false,” Newman said. He added that Carter “did not r@pe her, s3xually assault her, engage in any inappropriate conduct towards her, and she has never met him.”
The woman also offered what her attorney described as a sincere and unconditional apology to Carter and his family.
Carter now alleges that Buzbee pushed for the original lawsuit to be dismissed to protect himself from possible sanctions rather than primarily to safeguard his client’s privacy.
In his latest petition, Carter is asking for an opportunity to conduct limited discovery. He argues that if the process produces sufficient evidence supporting his claims, the case should then be allowed to proceed to trial. The appeals court has not yet granted Carter’s request to reconsider the case, and his allegations against Buzbee remain claims that have not been established at trial. Buzbee had not responded to requests for comment at the time of the report.
