Jay-Z and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of raping 13-year-old girl in US trial | Jay-Z

An amended lawsuit filed in federal court on Sunday alleges that rap moguls Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped a 13-year-old girl during a party in 2000.

Jay-Z denied the allegations on social media and criticized the lawsuit, calling it part of a “blackmail attempt” by the plaintiff’s attorney. In a statement released by his label, Roc Nation, he said he was devastated for his family and to have to explain the nature of the allegations to his and Beyoncé’s eldest daughter, Blue Ivy, 12. Lawyers for Jay-Z It did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Combs denied all charges against him, including this one, in October. He is in prison on federal sex-trafficking charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The lawsuit was originally filed in October in the Southern District of New York and at the time did not name Jay-Z as a defendant, although the amended lawsuit says Jay-Z was identified as “Celebrity A” on the original complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that the unnamed girl was drugged and raped by both Jay-Z and Combs at a party thrown by Combs after the 2000 MTV Music Awards held in New York.

She said Jay-Z and Combs took turns raping her at the party and that she drank a drink that left her feeling “bloated and dizzy.” She escaped, she said, by hitting Combs in the neck when he assaulted her, then ran to a gas station and was picked up by her father.

Tony Buzbee, the Texas attorney representing the girl who filed Sunday’s lawsuit, has filed at least 20 civil lawsuits against Combs accusing him of sexual misconduct and has used Instagram, a phone hotline and a press conference to find clients.

All of his cases have initially been brought by anonymous plaintiffs. A judge will decide whether the plaintiff in this case can proceed without revealing his identity.

In his statement, Jay-Z said: “These allegations are so heinous that I am begging you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil complaint!! Whoever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked up, would you don’t agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case. This lawyer, who I’ve done a little research on, seems to have a pattern of this type of theatrics!”

In an email to Reuters, Buzbee said the Jay-Z lawsuit “speaks for itself.”

“This is a very serious matter that will be heard in court,” Buzbee wrote.

Buzbee says in his amended lawsuit that his law firm had previously sent Jay-Z a letter seeking to broker a settlement.

Jay-Z, the lawsuit says, responded to that letter by filing a lawsuit against Buzbee and by “orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment” against Buzbee and other lawyers at his firm, which the lawyer said was an intimidation tactic to bring his client to silence. .

In a social media post, Buzbee said the alleged rape victim he represented “never demanded a penny” from Jay-Z, writing that “she only sought confidential mediation.”

Buzbee filed a lawsuit last week against the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, whose lawyers represent Combs and Jay-Z, accusing the firm’s legal team of harassing his colleagues, his clients and his family.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Jay-Z’s statement ended by expressing his support for “true victims of the world who have to see how their life story is dressed up for profitability by this ambulance chaser in a cheap suit”.

He said Buzbee had made “a terrible error of judgement” by assuming all celebrities were the same. “I’m not from your world. I’m a young man who came out of the Brooklyn Project. We don’t play that kind of game. We have very strict codes and honor.

“We are protecting children, you seem to be exploiting people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, would believe the idiotic claims you have made against me, which, if not for the seriousness of harming children, would be laughed at. I’m looking forward to showing you how different I am.”

Combs was recently denied bail for the third time by a New York City judge who described him as a “serious risk” of witness tampering. Prosecutors have previously accused Combs of trying to contact potential witnesses from prison and of creating “narratives” to influence public opinion and potential jurors for his upcoming sex-trafficking trial.