The woman who accused Jay-Z of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 has withdrawn her allegations and told a federal court that she never met or spoke to the rapper. The new statement was filed this week in Manhattan and represents a significant turn in the civil legal dispute involving Shawn Carter and attorney Tony Buzbee.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, had filed a lawsuit in 2024 accusing Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her after a party connected to the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Both Carter and Combs denied the allegations.
Doe now says that her allegations against Jay-Z were false.
The new statement changes the case
In a 12-page declaration filed in federal court in New York, Jane Doe stated that she never met Jay-Z, never spoke with him and that the rapper never behaved inappropriately toward her.
She also acknowledged that her previous allegations against Carter were not true.
The new declaration was made under penalty of perjury, and Doe said she was not paid and was not promised any compensation in exchange for withdrawing her allegations.
Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., made an important distinction: he said his client maintains that she was the victim of a sexual assault, but that she was mistaken when identifying Jay-Z as one of the people responsible.
That distinction matters because the retraction specifically concerns the allegations against Carter. It does not amount to a judicial finding about the other events Doe says she experienced.
How did the allegations against Jay-Z begin?
The case dates back to late 2024.
Jane Doe initially filed a lawsuit against Sean Combs over an alleged sexual assault when she was 13. The complaint was later amended to include Jay-Z as an alleged participant.
In her original account, Doe said that she had been assaulted after a party following the MTV Video Music Awards in New York in 2000.
Jay-Z denied the allegations from the beginning. The lawsuit against him was eventually withdrawn in 2025, but Carter subsequently filed his own legal action against Doe and attorney Tony Buzbee, alleging, among other claims, defamation and malicious prosecution.
It is within that ongoing legal dispute that the new declaration emerged.
Doe now questions how the lawsuit was filed
One of the most notable elements of the new filing is Doe’s account of how she became involved in the case.
According to her declaration, she saw a Facebook advertisement in late 2024 seeking people who might have claims connected to Sean Combs. After submitting a form, she was contacted by a legal team.
Doe now claims that the original lawsuit was filed without her receiving a draft to review beforehand. She also alleges that her former attorneys did not conduct enough independent investigation before filing the case.
Reuters reported that Doe said she later began questioning her own account, including the allegations involving Carter.
There were also inconsistencies surrounding the event described in the original complaint. Doe initially referred to a party following the Teen Choice Awards, while the lawsuit ultimately placed the alleged incident after the MTV Video Music Awards.
She also said that by January 2025, she had begun questioning her allegations against Carter and whether she had actually attended a celebrity party that night.
Jay-Z drops Doe from his lawsuit
Following the new declaration, Jay-Z’s attorneys voluntarily dismissed Jane Doe as a defendant in Carter’s current lawsuit.
That does not mean the broader legal dispute is over.
Carter’s case against Tony Buzbee and his law firm remains ongoing. Buzbee has challenged Doe’s new account and said he had not reviewed the declaration when contacted by Rolling Stone.
The legal fight therefore continues on a different front: the woman who originally accused Jay-Z now says that she never knew him and that her allegations against him were false, while Carter continues his case against the attorney who represented her.
A major turn in Jay-Z’s legal battle
The retraction comes at a significant moment for Jay-Z, who has also been back in the spotlight during 2026 with his JAŸ-Z30 tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, as well as his recent HBO documentary.
Urban Street previously covered that side of his career in JAŸ-Z IN 8, the documentary directed by Rick Rubin.
The focus has now shifted back to the courtroom, but with one major difference from the events of 2024: the woman who originally accused Jay-Z now says she never met or spoke with him and that her allegations against the rapper were false.
The case involving Buzbee is still pending, meaning the legal consequences of this latest development have yet to be determined.
