The woman who once accused Jay-Z of sexual assault has formally withdrawn her allegations, stating in a new court declaration that she never met the music mogul and that her previous claims involving him were untrue.
According to CBS News, the Jay-Z accuser submitted a 12-page declaration addressing the allegations she made against Shawn Carter, the rapper and businessman known professionally as Jay-Z. CBS News reported that it reviewed the declaration, in which the woman directly disavowed the accusations that placed Carter at the center of a high-profile civil lawsuit.
“Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever,” the woman wrote. “There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter.”
She also acknowledged the impact her accusations had on Carter, writing that her “false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering and damage that can never be fully undone.”
The reversal comes nearly two years after the legal dispute began. According to CBS News, the original lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and initially accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual assault. The complaint was later amended in December 2024 to name Carter. The woman alleged that she attended an afterparty connected to the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards as a teenager and was sexually assaulted after becoming lightheaded from a drink.
Court history detailed in a recent California Court of Appeal opinion confirms that the federal complaint was filed on October 20, 2024, and initially referred to Carter only as “Celebrity A.” The complaint was amended on December 8, 2024, to identify Carter by name. The same court opinion states that the woman dismissed that New York case with prejudice in February 2025.
The Jay-Z accuser now says her recollection changed after she began questioning whether Carter had been involved at all. According to CBS News, she said the process started after she encountered a Facebook advertisement seeking people who might have sexual assault claims involving Combs. She said the advertisement triggered memories of being sexually assaulted as a teenager and that she was eventually connected with the Buzbee Law Firm.
In her latest declaration, the woman claimed the original lawsuit was filed by attorney Tony Buzbee and his firm without her knowledge. She also said that by January 2025, she had started doubting her allegations against Carter and questioning whether “I ever went to a party with celebrities.” She claimed her attorneys later dismissed the lawsuit after she communicated those doubts.
Carter has consistently denied the allegations. CBS News reported that he later sued the woman, Buzbee, and the Buzbee Law Firm, alleging they conspired to pressure him into a private financial settlement. Carter alleged that after refusing to pay what he called an “extortionate demand letter,” the lawsuit was amended to publicly name him.
A separate California case Carter brought against Buzbee and his firm did not succeed. According to the California Court of Appeal’s September 9, 2026 opinion, the appeals court affirmed a lower court decision striking Carter’s claims involving alleged civil extortion, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The ruling dealt with that California litigation and is separate from Carter’s malicious prosecution action in New York.
That New York case against Buzbee and his law firm remains active, according to CBS News. Carter filed notice that he was voluntarily dismissing the Jay-Z accuser herself as a defendant following her new declaration.
Carter wrote that the “trauma” experienced by him, his family and his loved ones because of the allegations “can never be dismissed.”
The woman’s new attorney, James Blair Newman Jr., also addressed the change in her account. According to CBS News, Newman said his client “maintains that she was a victim of sexual assault, but she was entirely mistaken in her allegations identifying Mr. Carter, and those allegations were false.”
The broader legal situation involving Combs remains separate from the woman’s recanted accusations against Carter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York states that a federal jury convicted Combs in July 2025 on two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution. He was sentenced in October 2025 to 50 months in prison.
Buzbee continues to represent other clients pursuing civil sexual assault claims against Combs, according to CBS News. Combs’ attorneys have disputed those cases and previously characterized Buzbee’s lawsuits as “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them.
The Jay-Z accuser’s latest declaration now creates a dramatically different record concerning Carter specifically: the woman whose allegations once placed his name in the lawsuit is stating unequivocally that she never met him and that the accusations she made against him were false.
