Russell Simmons was sued for defamation for allegedly trying to undermine sexual assault accusations made against him.
via: Hot97
After being served by a process server in Bali, music mogul Russell Simmons fired back by requesting that the court dismiss Drew Dixon’s defamation lawsuit with prejudice.
According to RadarOnline, Simmons claimed he should be dismissed because he did not name Dixon when addressing sexual assault claims against him in December 2023.
A defamation lawsuit claims that a statement has harmed someone’s reputation. It can be both written defamation and spoken defamation, such as libel. The lawsuit accuses Simmons of discrediting her and sexual assault allegations from others during a December 2023 interview on Graham Basinger’s podcast In Depth With Graham Basinger.
Drew Dixon is a former music executive who was among many women who claim Simmons sexually assaulted them. Dixon released a documentary in 2020 titled On The Record that centers around the sexual allegations of Simmons. The documentary includes 20 other women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Simmons.
Simmons denied the allegations and shared that his sexual encounters were consensual during the Graham Basinger podcast.
“I have never been forceful,” he said. “If you had more foursomes than most guys at once, could someone leave and feel hurt? Could some reimagine a story out of thousands of people? Could someone want notoriety in the market where people thirst for fame, even infamous?”
Dixon’s attorneys claimed that her lawsuit resulted from Simmons’ concerted and malicious campaign to damage her reputation. In the lawsuit, her attorneys wrote that Simmons “subjected Ms. Dixon to public ridicule, contempt, and disgrace by, among other things, calling Ms. Dixon a liar in published statements with the malicious intent of discrediting and further damaging Ms. Dixon worldwide.”
There has been no ruling on Simmons’ request by the court at press time.
