Doe dismissed from Carter’s malicious prosecution counter-suit

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is in the midst of what NPR described as a “professional victory lap,” celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut album Reasonable Doubt with a series of concerts at Yankee Stadium and an HBO docuseries titled “JAŸ-Z In 8” that explores his catalog and legacy.

The milestone arrives as a woman who had accused Carter of raping her in 2000 when she was 13 years old filed a sworn declaration in Manhattan federal court on Thursday stating that all of her original allegations were false, according to NPR reporting by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento.

In the declaration, Doe stated that she had never met or spoken to Carter and that he had never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward her. “Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me,” she wrote, according to NPR. “I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever.” Doe further stated that, to her knowledge, her allegations had been filed in court by her attorneys without conducting any independent investigation, NPR reported.

Doe originally filed a civil lawsuit in 2024 claiming that Carter and media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped her in 2000, according to NPR. At the time of the filing, Doe was represented by Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, whose firm had filed more than a dozen sexual harassment lawsuits against Combs, NPR reported.

Both Carter and Combs denied the allegations in Buzbee’s filing, and Carter issued a statement at the time claiming he was the target of an extortion campaign, NPR said. Doe dropped her lawsuit against both men several months after filing.

In February 2025, Carter filed a malicious prosecution and defamation lawsuit against Doe and Buzbee, according to NPR. With Thursday’s declaration, Doe has now been dismissed as a defendant from that suit, though the case against Buzbee continues, NPR reported.

Combs was separately the subject of a federal investigation for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy and was later acquitted on the most serious charges in that case, NPR said.

NPR reported that it reached out to the Buzbee Law Firm for comment but had not heard back.