Jay-Z’s legal team has released the smoking gun that they believe proves their client’s innocence once and for all in the now-dismissed rape lawsuit against him.
The lawyers released audio, obtained by ABC News and “Good Morning America” Wednesday, of Jane Doe admitting to two private investigators that Jay-Z did not rape her. She also claimed in the tape that attorney Tony Buzbee “pushed” her to lie about those allegations.
“But Jay-Z was — you’re saying he was definitely there? But he had no part in it?” a male private investigator could be heard asking the unidentified woman in the clip.
She then responds, “He was there.”
A female private investigator follows up to further clarify, “He was just there but he didn’t have anything to do with any sexual acts towards you,” to which Doe answers back, “Yeah.”
The ex-accuser then allegedly says in a separate part of the conversation that her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, “was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him, with Jay-Z.”
The male investigator asks, “Do you know why?” to which Doe responds, “No.”
Buzbee, 56, tells Page Six in response to the audio, “I spoke to Jane Doe immediately after being contacted by ABC. Her position is very clear and has never changed. The tape is a fabrication.”
“The investigators tormented and harassed and tricked that poor woman and took what she said out of context and secretly recorded her,” the Texas-based lawyer adds.
“She stands by her claim that Jay-Z was there at the party and that he assaulted her. She has never wavered on that point, not once.”
ABC obtained a recording of Buzbee’s call with his client and Doe could be heard flat-out denying that she ever told investigators Jay-Z did not rape her or that she blamed Buzbee for the alleged lies, seemingly contradicting what was said in the investigators’ tape.
Page Six has reached out to Jay-Z’s reps for comment on Buzbee’s statement but did not immediately hear back.
The hip-hop star’s attorney Alex Spiro told ABC, however, in response, “The tape speaks for itself.”
“She says, in no uncertain terms, Mr. Carter did not do this,” the prominent lawyer, who represents other high-profile clients such as Elon Musk and Mayor Eric Adams, added in the televised interview.
“It is effectively a lie, and the only reason Mr. Carter is even involved in this is because she was pushed to involve him, pushed to include him by a lawyer.”
Spiro, 42, further insisted that the private investigators “did not coerce her, promise or threaten her in any way shape or form,” adding, “She voluntarily met and spoke to them and she told them her truth.”
He concluded that Jay-Z “doesn’t know Jane Doe,” “never met” her and “there’s no truth to any of this.”
Doe first brought forth her allegations about Jay-Z, 55, in a scathing lawsuit filed in December 2024.
She claimed at the time that the “Empire State of Mind” rapper allegedly raped her at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty in New York in 2000 when she was just 13. She also claimed Sean “Diddy” Combs and an unidentified woman were present during the alleged assault.
Combs — who is awaiting his federal trial behind bars and facing a slew of other sexual assault allegations — has denied he was involved in the alleged incident.
Jay-Z also vehemently denied the accusations from the start, claiming he’s a victim of “blackmail.”
Doe — who has publicly admitted to sharing “inconsistencies” — then dropped her lawsuit, which was filed in New York, in February.
Around that same time, Buzbee was denied the right to practice law in the state because he had not been admitted into the Bar of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). He can still seek “pro hac vice” admission, however, within the Southern District.
Jay-Z has since sued Doe, Buzbee and one of the latter’s colleagues, David Fortney, for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, civil conspiracy and defamation, claiming the alleged “lies” spread about him have cost him at least $20 million.
In a sworn declaration filed shortly after that suit, Doe stood by her claims and claimed the “Run This Town” rapper was trying to bully her into recounting her allegations.
Jay-Z’s lawyers argued in an opposition filing in response, “The new declaration only further reinforces the need for Jane Doe to sit for a deposition regarding her conversations with Mr. Buzbee and with his colleagues who convinced Jane Doe to drop her lawsuit.
“If we have learned nothing else about Mr. Buzbee in the last seven days, it is that he is an unrepentant extortionist and liar.“