Jay-Z's Lawyer Calls Rape Claim 'a Fantasy' and Says 'This Never Happened'

In a conference room at Roc Nation's offices in New York City on Monday, a small group of reporters, CNN among them, watched a lawyer click through a PowerPoint presentation. The lawyer was Alex Spiro, who represents Jay-Z, and his subject was a lawsuit accusing the rapper of raping a 13-year-old girl at a 2000 MTV Video Music Awards afterparty. "This is all a fantasy," he said. "We expect the case to be dismissed. If it's not, we expect this all to crumble."

The accuser is identified in court filings only as Jane Doe. She first sued Sean "Diddy" Combs in October. Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, was not named in that original complaint. He appears in an amended complaint, which alleges that he and Combs assaulted her at the afterparty. Carter denied the allegation as soon as the amended filing appeared.

Spiro's walk-through was built around the timeline in her lawsuit, which he called demonstrably false. In the complaint, Doe says she met a limo driver outside Radio City Music Hall, where the awards were held. The driver said he worked for Combs, and she was taken to an afterparty. Spiro told the room that the limousine line was blocked off and guarded by police to keep the public out. He also showed photographs of Carter, Combs and other celebrities at a VMA afterparty held at a commercial establishment in New York City. And he argued that her account does not hold up because of the time it would take to travel from the city to the suburbs, where the alleged party took place.

"None of the details are right because this never happened," Spiro said. "When something isn't real and when something doesn't happen, you're going to get the details wrong because you weren't really there."

The presentation came days after Doe told NBC News that her original story contained inconsistencies, including about key corroborating witnesses. She maintained her accusation against Carter. "I have made some mistakes," she said, and added that she hopes to give others the strength to come forward. Spiro rejected the framing. "This is not an account of inconsistencies," he said. "This never happened. This is completely false."

Much of his anger was aimed at Doe's lawyer, Tony Buzbee of Houston. Spiro accused Buzbee of shaking down celebrities, saying, "This is not for truth and justice. This is for money." He had earlier accused Buzbee of trying to extort Carter before Carter was publicly named. Before the amended complaint was filed, Carter's lawyers sued Buzbee for extortion, alleging he was trying to shake down innocent celebrities, politicians and businesspeople with an army of masked accusers. Buzbee calls that suit utterly frivolous. Spiro has said he will ask the court to dismiss Doe's case and seek disciplinary action against Buzbee and his team.

Buzbee told CNN by email that the accusations against him and his client are baseless and that courts exist to resolve factual disputes. Asked about his vetting, he said four people at his firm interviewed Doe and checked details after another firm referred the original case. He said the firm ran a background check and hired a seasoned investigator to vet some of what she disclosed, and that the results were consistent with her account. Doe, he added, has signed two separate affidavits. "Our client remains adamant about her claim," he said.

Spiro said Carter is upset about being accused, that the case makes a mockery of the system, that it discourages real victims from coming forward, and that it burdens his kids and family. Lawyers for Combs, who has denied all civil allegations against him, told CNN: "This is the beginning of the end of this shameful money grab." Spiro also separated his client from Combs's mounting civil and criminal cases, saying the two knew each other professionally for a number of years and that any closer association is fiction.

What to watch now is whether the court dismisses the case, and whether Spiro's push for disciplinary action against Buzbee goes anywhere.