Kesha’s legal battle with Dr. Luke is far from over.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a judge decided on Friday to authorize an “aggressive expansion” of the music mogul’s defamation lawsuit against the Tik Tok singer. Now, the songstress could potentially be found culpable for how she and her reps discussed the civil suit she filed 2014 alleging that Luke raped and abused her while they were working together.
The new expansion targets Kesha for dozens of statements her lawyers made around the time that she filed the lawsuit. THR notes this is unusual because “statements made by lawyers in the course of litigation are often deemed privileged and non-actionable.”
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But that could all change thanks to New York Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter’s ruling.
In the suit, Luke’s team claims to have evidence that the allegations against the producer were timed to cause maximum damage to his career. In an email exchange from May 2012, for example, Kesha’s manager Ken Levitan told colleagues the singer “beyond despises Luke.”
To that, Irving Azoff, a powerful player in the music industry, responded:
“Get me in the mix. I will ruin him.”
Levitan later replied:
“We need the album done and its close…there are huge hits on it…let’s ruin him after he delivers.”
The plot to smear Luke in the press continued with the involvement of Sunshine Sachs, which stated in a memo:
“Our goal is to help extricate CLIENT K from her current professional relationship with PERSON L by inciting a deluge of negative media attention and public pressure on the basis of the horrific personal abuses presented in the lawsuit.”
The PR firm reportedly shared an advance copy of the lawsuit with TMZ before it was filed by Kesha’s then-attorney Mark Geragos. TMZ also allowed the publicist to see the story before it was published, despite such a tactic being ethically frowned upon by journalists.
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After reviewing all the evidence, Justice Schecter wrote it could possibly be concluded that “the California complaint was a sham maliciously filed soley to defame plaintiffs as part of Kesha’s alleged campaign to destroy Gottwald as leverage to renegotiate her contracts.”
Kesha is contractually obligated to work on two more albums under Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe Records. We’ll keep you updated on whether or not this case makes it to trial.
[Image via Adriana M/ Barraza/WENN]
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