Jay-Z’s Lawyer Explains Defamation Case Against Former Accuser; Says She Cannot Be Allowed to 'Hide From the Reality'

Jay-Z's legal team explains why the rapper filed a defamation lawsuit against his former accuser and her lawyers. Read on to know the details.

Written by Ipshita Chakraborty , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 13, 2025 | 01:33 PM GMT | 7.9K

CC: Getty Images

Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual assault

Jay-Z's lawyer, Alex Spiro, has reacted to the rapper filing a lawsuit against Jane Doe and her lawyers, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, for defamation. This is coming after a previous lawsuit accusing Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Sean Diddy Combs of sexually assaulting a woman was dismissed.

In a recent Good Morning America interview, Spiro pointed out that Carter sought legal action to have the whole truth told. He believed that the initial allegations were untrue and tactically crafted to cause the maximum harm to the reputation of the rapper. The suit alleges Jane Doe confessed to representatives of Carter that he did not assault her and accused Buzbee of coercing her into naming him to bolster the case.

Spiro said, "The truth had to fully come out. This person cannot be allowed to sort of hide from the reality that this was a false accusation."

Spiro cited a tape — accessed by GMA — where Jane Doe supposedly denied the alleged assault and claimed Buzbee "pushed" her into accusing Jay-Z. Spiro said the tape "speaks for itself," claiming that what she said made it very clear Jay-Z was improperly brought into the lawsuit.

"She says in no uncertain terms, Mr. Carter did not do this. It is effectively a lie and the only reason Mr. Carter is even involved in this was because she was pushed to involve him, pushed to include him by a lawyer," Spiro claimed.

Buzbee, though, denied these allegations, labeling the charges of coercion as a "blatant lie." He produced his own tape in which Jane Doe denies ever making such a statement to private investigators.

In another statement to People, Buzbee said that the allegations against him were false, as he claimed, "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."

Jane Doe's initial lawsuit was dismissed voluntarily with prejudice on February 14. Although she chose not to pursue the case further, she insisted that she still believed in her initial allegations.

Alex Spiro dismissed the implication that Sean Diddy Combs or Jay-Z pressured Jane Doe to discontinue the suit, saying that she voluntarily discontinued it after she informed their side that Jay-Z was not involved.