Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
Jay-Z has decided to change his approach in an ongoing case in which he, Sean 'Diddy' Combs and an unidentified female have been accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was named alongside Combs and the female, identified by the moniker 'Celebrity B', in a lawsuit filed last year.
The accuser has claimed that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by both Carter and Combs in 2000, when she attended an afterparty hosted by Combs after the MTV Music Awards in New York.
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Carter has denied the allegations against him and even claimed the lawsuit was a 'blackmail attempt' by the accuser's lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
In January, Carter's lawyer, Alex Spiro, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and he then went on to place a motion for sanctions against Buzbee for 'lack of diligence'.
Requesting the sanctions on January 29, Spiro wrote: “Mr. Carter seeks only to hold Mr. Buzbee to the ethical standards that constrain any responsible attorney who would solemnly sign his name to allegations in court."
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Spiro claimed Buzbee had failed to investigate his client's story, and alleged he had failed to meet with her before taking her on as a client.
“Without such guardrails on litigation, there is obvious, worrisome risk: Someone in Mr. Buzbee’s position could level reputation-destroying allegations indiscriminately in court, with an eye towards leveraging them in sensationalist fashion outside of court, without ever properly inquiring into their truth or facing accountability," Spiro claimed.
However, Carter's team has now apparently done a U-turn on this motion, as Deadline reported on the team's decision to withdraw it.
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The new filing reads: "We write on behalf of Defendant Shawn Carter to respectfully request that Mr. Carter’s Motion for Sanctions pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 be withdrawn at this time, without prejudice."
Though Spiro has asked to withdraw the motion of sanctions, he remains determined to get the lawsuit against Carter thrown out, especially after the accuser admitted in a December 12 interview that she had 'made some mistakes' while recalling what happened on the night of the alleged incident.
However, she has insisted that the accusation still remains the same.
In response to this revelation, Buzbee told NBC News: "Jane Doe’s case was referred to our firm by another, who vetted it prior to sending it to us.
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"Our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory. We will continue to vet her claims and collect corroborating data to the extent it exists."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org
If you want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Emily Brown