A woman identifying as Jane Doe formally recanted sexual assault allegations against rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter in a Manhattan federal court declaration filed on Thursday, September 24, 2026. The woman stated that her previous claims were false and that she has never met or spoken to Carter. Following the filing, Carter voluntarily dismissed the woman as a defendant in his ongoing malicious prosecution and defamation lawsuit.
The legal dispute began in October 2024 when the woman filed a civil lawsuit, later amended in December 2024 to include Carter, alleging that he and media mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs drugged and raped her at a 2000 MTV Video Music Awards afterparty when she was 13 years old. Both men denied the allegations, with Carter characterizing the suit as an extortion attempt. The woman dropped the original lawsuit in February 2025, prompting Carter to file his own legal action against her and her former attorneys, Tony Buzbee and David Fortney, in March 2025.
In her 12-page declaration, the woman stated that Carter never engaged in inappropriate conduct toward her and that the lawsuit was filed by her then-attorneys without an independent investigation. She explained that she initially contacted the law firm after seeing a Facebook ad regarding claims against Combs, which she said triggered memories of a teenage assault. Her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., said his client maintains she was a victim of sexual assault but was "entirely mistaken" in identifying Carter.
The malicious prosecution lawsuit remains active against Buzbee and his firm in New York. Carter's legal team previously alleged in a filing that Buzbee pressured the woman to include Carter to strengthen the case and extract a higher settlement. Buzbee has denied these claims, stating that Carter's investigators harassed the woman to force a recantation and maintaining that the defamation action has no legal merit.
The scale of this legal conflict involves at least two high-profile entertainment figures and dozens of other sexual misconduct lawsuits filed by Buzbee against Sean Combs. Combs, who was also named in the woman's original complaint, was acquitted in July 2025 of the most serious charges in a federal sex-trafficking case but is currently serving a four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges. For the public and the legal community, this case highlights the vetting responsibilities of law firms when filing serious allegations against public figures and the subsequent use of malicious prosecution suits as a defense.
A person following these events would notice a shift in the legal proceedings from the accuser to the attorneys who represented her. While the woman is no longer a defendant as of September 24, 2026, the court will continue to evaluate the conduct of the Buzbee Law Firm. The next steps include ongoing litigation in the New York malicious prosecution case, where Carter is seeking to address what he described as a conspiracy to pressure him into a financial settlement. No specific trial date for the remaining defendants was reported.