The woman who accused Jay-Z of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 has now recanted her allegations in a new federal court declaration, saying she never met or spoke with the rapper.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the litigation, filed the 12-page declaration Thursday in Manhattan federal court as part of Jay-Z’s ongoing malicious-prosecution lawsuit against attorney Tony Buzbee and his law firm.
“Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter,” Doe wrote in the declaration.
She also stated that Carter “never engaged in any inappropriate conduct” toward her and that there was “no truth” to her claims against him. She said she understood that the accusations had caused Carter and his family significant harm.
The new filing marks a major reversal from the allegations made public in late 2024. Doe had initially sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging that she was sexually assaulted at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards when she was 13. An amended complaint later identified Carter as the previously unnamed male celebrity she accused of participating in the alleged assault. Carter denied the allegations.
Doe eventually withdrew that underlying lawsuit with prejudice in February 2025 after acknowledging inconsistencies in her account.
Her latest declaration goes further. According to her new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., Doe maintains that she was sexually assaulted but says she was “entirely mistaken” in identifying Carter as the person involved.
“Mr. Carter did not rape her, sexually assault her, engage in any inappropriate conduct towards her, and she has never met him,” Newman said in a statement. He added that Doe “sincerely and unconditionally apologizes” to Carter and his family.
The declaration was filed alongside paperwork voluntarily dismissing Doe as a defendant in Carter’s malicious-prosecution case. According to Rolling Stone, Doe said she was not promised or paid compensation for making the declaration.
Doe’s new account also describes how her original legal claim developed. She said she responded to a Facebook advertisement seeking people with sexual-assault claims against Combs in late September or early October 2024. She said the advertisement triggered memories of an assault she says occurred when she was 13.
She further alleged that her initial lawsuit was filed without her knowledge and that her lawyers had not independently investigated or conducted sufficient due diligence before filing it. Those claims are part of her new account and remain disputed.
Buzbee, who represented Doe in the original litigation, has disputed suggestions that he pressured her into making the allegations. After learning of the new declaration, he told Rolling Stone that multiple lawyers had spoken with Doe before his involvement and that she had given them the same account.
The recantation comes while Carter’s malicious-prosecution lawsuit against Buzbee and his firm remains active. Carter has alleged that the attorneys should have known the accusations were unsupported before filing the case.
For now, the new declaration substantially changes the legal record surrounding the allegations against Carter: the woman who previously accused him now states under oath that she never met him and that her claims against him were false.
