Jay-Z gained a small but potentially significant legal victory this week in his long-running legal battle with attorney Tony Buzbee, a battle that traces back to Buzbee’s representation of a woman who accused Jay of sexual assault and later recanted.
On Thursday (Oct. 1), a California appeals court amended an earlier decision that the rap icon could not sue Buzbee again, after a suit he’d filed against the attorney for defamation and extortion had been dismissed last year.
The appeals court said that, while they weren’t changing their mind, they would allow a lower court to order discovery and “reconsider[] its prior ruling based on any new evidence, should the court deem it appropriate.”
In late 2024, Buzbee represented a Jane Doe who filed a lawsuit claiming she had been raped by Diddy and Jay at an afterparty following the 2000 Video Music Awards.
That November, Jay in turn sued Buzbee for extortion, and later sought permission from a judge to add a defamation claim.
In February of 2025, Jane Doe’s case was dismissed voluntarily — a move that Hov cited when making his case to be allowed to sue Buzbee for defamation.
The latest blockbuster piece of evidence in the case happened late last month, when Jane Doe issued a statement apologizing for her “false” allegations.
“My allegations that Shawn Carter raped me or otherwise sexually assaulted me were false,” her statement read, in part. “I have never met Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever. There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter.”
Jay’s attorney argued that this new evidence should allow him to restart his case against Buzbee, which, as mentioned, had been dismissed last year. While that did not happen, the new ruling means a door remains open for the case to potentially start again, if a trial court agrees.
“We are pleased that the Court of Appeal has invited us to ask the Superior Court to order discovery and reconsider its prior ruling based on the recent declaration from Ms. Doe,” Jeremy Rosen, Jay’s attorney, said in a statement to Billboard. “We intend to proceed with that application as soon jurisdiction is returned to the Superior Court.”
