Cardi B‘s legal counsel is attempting to convince a judge to dismiss an appeal in a multi-million dollar defamation case the “WAP” rapper won earlier this year.
On Thursday (October 28), Cardi’s legal team submitted a request to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the substantial verdict against YouTuber Latesha “Tasha K,” Kebe. The ruling in question requires the content creator to pay a whopping $3.8 million as a part of a judgment reached in the libel case she and the “Bodak Yellow” rapper were enthralled in for several years.
In January, a judge ruled that the UWineWithTashaK podcast host must pay the large sum of money in the form of a Supersedeas bond to ensure Cardi B would receive the full lump sum of money at once no matter the status of the appeals case.
On several occasions, Tasha K has openly denied her ability to fulfill the financial obligation, along with her belief that the verdict was prejudicial and based, “solely off of sympathy and payola.”
This past March, weeks after a jury found her guilty on three separate counts for “defamation of character, invasion of privacy through portrayal in a false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Tasha K and her legal team formally submitted the case to an appeals court.
Despite the fact Tasha K reportedly admitted she knowingly published false information, she believes that evidence crucial to the case was withheld.
In a statement obtained by AllHipHop, Cardi B’s attorney W. Andrew Pequignot Accused Tasha K of being “patently outrageous and depraved,” and explained why he and the Atlantic Records rapper’s legal team believe there is no chance the YouTuber will win her appeals case.
“The totality of evidence was more than sufficient for the jury to find that [Tasha K.’s] conduct was not merely vulgar, tasteless, rude, or insulting,” W. Andrew Pequignot argued in the statement. “Rather, their unrelenting and self-described ‘campaign’ was motivated solely by greed and spite and was so abusive and obscene that any reasonable person would find that [Cardi B’s] intense feelings of humiliation, embarrassment, shame, and outrage were the natural result of [Tasha K.s] conduct.”
While a verdict in the case was reached at the top of 2022, Cardi B originally filed the $75,000 lawsuit in 2019. The Invasion of Privacy lyricist was originally awarded $1.25 million in damages, however, a Georgia judge granted the Grammy Award-winning rapper another $1.5 million in punitive damages and an additional $1.3 million in attorney fees in January.
Once the case finally made it to a federal Georgia courtroom earlier in January, details of Tasha K’s aggressive conduct began to swirl in the media. Tasha K made multiple defamatory claims against Cardi including accusing her of having herpes, using a beer bottle as a sex toy during her time working as a stripper, working as a prostitute and abusing cocaine.
The YouTube creator also allegedly went live on her personal Instagram account in 2020 to boast about knowingly perpetuating the false information to her fan base. “I knew it was fake, and guess what, because I knew it was muthafuckin’ fake, I still made that shit go viral, I still made it go viral, you dumb ho, and it does nothing to my credibility at all,” Tasha K said in a video that was used as evidence against her during the case.
Cardi previously opened up about the case to the presiding jury, admitting to experiencing mental health trauma as a result of Tasha K’s actions. “I felt extremely suicidal. I felt defeated and depressed and I didn’t want to sleep with my husband… Only an evil person could do that shit,” Cardi B said.
She also expressed the mixed emotions she felt upon discovering the news she had won the case in a tweet in which she wrote: “Why am I happy but sad at the same time?”
[via]
