Russell Simmons Needs Sexual Assault Accuser Pay His Authorized Invoice

Russell Simmons is demanding Drew Dixon pay his authorized charges within the pair’s ongoing authorized battle over claims of sexual assault.  

Dixon has accused the Def Jam Recordings co-founder of sexual assault, however Simmons has vehemently denied claims of defamation, arguing his feedback have been of public concern and thus not defamatory. 

Dixon, who served as an A&R government at Def Jam within the ’90s, sued Russell Simmons in February 2024, alleging he intentionally tried to tarnish her status and impede her profession within the music business. 

The lawsuit facilities round feedback Simmons made in a December 2023 interview with The New York Occasions. In it, he minimized the accusations and implied his accusers could be in search of fame.

“When you slept with as many individuals as I slept with. Hundreds. And we’re speaking about six individuals,” Russell Simmons stated within the New York Occasions interview. 

“However I can merely inform you that I used to be in so many compromising conditions, that folks can have a recollection from 30 or 40 years in the past, and it may be completely different from my recollection…Might some reimagine a narrative out of hundreds of individuals? Might somebody need notoriety available in the market the place individuals thirst for fame, even notorious,” Simmons added. 

In a brand new submitting, Simmons’s authorized group countered these allegations by asserting that the feedback made throughout a podcast interview have been inside his proper to answer public accusations and articulated his private opinion on a subject that has attracted important public curiosity. 

“Because of the nature of each Plaintiff’s and Simmons’s fame, and Plaintiff’s public dialogue about their sexual historical past, this matter could pretty be thought-about as regarding a matter of ‘social or different concern of the group,” defined Simmons’s legal professional David Fish.

Fish additionally emphasised that Dixon’s lively participation in public discourse surrounding the allegations, together with her involvement in a New York Occasions exposé and the HBO documentary “On The Report,” has additional instigated public scrutiny, making Simmons’s feedback a warranted response to Dixon’s public assertions. 

“Furthermore, Plaintiff forged her status and these allegations to the forefront of the general public’s consideration and created additional public curiosity by showing in The New York Occasions article, the documentary on HBO, and advocating publicly about her expertise with sexual abuse…the allegedly defamatory Statements are as a response to Plaintiff’s inviting public commentary on her interactions with Simmons,” Fish elaborated.

Simmons’s protection raised factors about precise malice and questioned the damages Dixon claims to have suffered, arguing for a dismissal of the defamation declare. 

They petitioned for the award of legal professional’s charges and prices to Simmons, citing New York’s anti-SLAPP statute, which goals to guard people from lawsuits that could be meant to discourage free speech.