One question that’s loomed over the disturbing allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs is the culpability of his famous friends. Will anyone else be exposed during his upcoming trial or named in the growing pile of civil lawsuits against him? In the months since the hip-hop mogul was federally charged with sex trafficking and racketeering in the Southern District of New York, spectators online have been mining old photos of Combs’ star-studded white parties, looking at potential celebrities — from Ashton Kutcher to Beyoncé — that could have been involved or at least possibly aware of his alleged “freak-offs.”
This focus on Combs’ high-profile associates seems to have built on the speculation around the late financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose 2019 death left many open questions about his own elite circle. Online, conspiracy theories circulate about who knew or did what with the Diddy case, from QAnon-esque readings of Justin Bieber lyrics to anti-gay speculation about his mentorship of Usher. However, recent accusations involving one of Diddy’s most illustrious music peers have lent some gravity to this conjecture. On Monday, in an anonymous civil lawsuit, fellow rapper and mogul Jay-Z (a.k.a. Shawn Carter) was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 along with Combs.
The complaint, which was filed in October, initially only listed Combs as a defendant, concealing the names of a male celebrity who allegedly participated in the assault and a female celebrity who allegedly witnessed it. However, some back-and-forth between Carter and the accuser’s counsel resulted in the rapper’s inclusion in a re-filing, making Carter the first high-profile defendant intertwined in Combs’s ongoing legal scandals.
While it’s still early days for this case, the suit raises questions about what this will mean for the rest of Combs’s legal proceedings, and whether other A-list figures could possibly be named. Notably, Hollywood’s Me Too movement did not penetrate the even less regulated music industry in a culture-shifting way, let alone the male-dominated genre of rap. Will the calling out of a celebrity as gigantic as Jay-Z embolden more victims to speak up?
What is Jay-Z being accused of?
In the new lawsuit, posted by legal journalist Meghann Cuniff, the anonymous plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, claims that Combs and Carter took turns raping her at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party while an unidentified female celebrity watched. The accuser says she was transported to the party by Combs’s driver, who she met outside of Radio City Music Hall while she was trying to gain entry into the venue for the awards show. The driver told her he would take her to the party after the show, stating that she “fit what Diddy was looking for.” When they arrived at the mansion where the party was held, the woman said she signed what she thought was a nondisclosure agreement. She was also given a drink that made her feel “woozy and lightheaded, making her need to lie down,” according to the lawsuit. Shortly after she went into a room to rest, Combs and Carter entered. Combs allegedly grabbed her and exclaimed, “You are ready to party!”
According to the lawsuit, Carter took off her clothes, held her down and raped her while Combs and the unidentified female celebrity watched. Combs then allegedly raped the plaintiff while Carter and the unnamed celebrity looked on. Eventually, the plaintiff was able to escape after hitting Combs in his neck and running out of the room.
Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee, who in recent months filed numerous lawsuits against Combs accusing him of physical and sexual assault, says in the latest lawsuit that he sent Carter a demand letter prior to refiling, “requesting a mediation” to resolve the matter. Carter then filed his own anonymous lawsuit against the plaintiff’s legal team, accusing them of extortion. In the refiled complaint, Buzbee calls Carter’s lawsuit “frivolous” and accuses him of “orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying, and intimidation against Plaintiff’s lawyers, their families, and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff” from naming him.
After the refiling, Carter denied all allegations, releasing an impassioned — and seemingly unvetted by a publicist — statement on his entertainment company Roc Nation’s social media accounts on Sunday. (The statement is currently being circulated as an ad on X.) In his response, he calls the initial demand letter he received from Buzbee a “blackmail attempt,” disparages Buzbee’s reputation as a lawyer, and mentions the effect of the accusations on his family, which includes his wife, singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter: “My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people.” He also implores Buzbee to file a criminal complaint rather than a civil one.
On Monday, Carter’s attorneys opposed the plaintiff’s request to proceed anonymously. The motion notes that in two previous cases that Buzbee filed in the New York district, the court denied his requests, after “failing to meet the burden to show that each plaintiff was entitled to ‘the exceptional remedy of anonymity.’”
Are more celebrities likely to be named?
While the world waits for a conclusion to this disturbing lawsuit, the implications of the news are yet to be seen. Will the exposure of someone as powerful as Carter result in more celebrities being outed in Combs’s legal proceedings or even sued on their own? Or is this simply the outcome of confidential back-and-forth handled in a messy manner?
In a previous interview with Vox about the rise of high-profile sex-trafficking cases, former Department of Justice prosecutor Neama Rahmani said it’s unlikely that more would be exposed in the criminal charges against Combs, given that US Attorney Damian Williams lacks “a kitchen-sick approach” to prosecuting. He also said the “standard is higher” in criminal court, and prosecutors aren’t going to risk naming someone unless they’re certain they can get a conviction. However, he does expect for celebrities involved in these cases to receive civil lawsuits, as we’re seeing currently.
“There’s a lot of allegations that there were other celebrities that participated in these ‘freak-offs,’” says Rahmani, who has prosecuted human trafficking cases. “According to Cassie Ventura, he recorded these freak-offs both for his sexual pleasure but also to have power over the [celebrity] participants to blackmail them. So this might be the first domino to fall.”
Rahmani also tells Vox that other lawsuits against Carter could emerge, similar to the way Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s 2023 claims against Combs, her ex-partner, led to an avalanche of allegations by other accusers. For now, Rahmani says spectators will have to wait and see.
“It’s really impossible to know,” he says. “But it might be a Me Too-type of situation for the music industry.”
