Chris Brown sued Warner Bros. Discovery for $500 million, accusing the company and its producers of making defamatory claims against him in Chris Brown: A History of Violence.
Released in October last year, the documentary looked back at the rapper’s long history of legal woes and accusations against Brown, including a claim from a Jane Doe who previously sued Brown for allegedly drugging and assaulting her during a 2020 yacht party hosted by now-disgraced mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by Rolling Stone, Warner Bros. Discovery and production company Ample Entertainment are accused of “promoting and publishing false information in their pursuit of likes, clicks, downloads and dollars and to the detriment” of Brown, despite “knowing that it was full of lies and deception and violating basic journalistic principles.”
“To put it simply, this case is about the media putting their own profits over the truth,” the suit, filed on Tuesday, claims. “They did so after being provided proof that their information was false, and their storytelling ‘Jane Doe’ had not only been discredited over and over but was in fact a perpetrator of intimate partners violence and aggressor herself,” the complaint alleged. “Mr. Brown has never been found guilty of any sex related crime…but this documentary states in every available fashion that he is a serial rapist and sexual abuser.”
The Jane Doe is also named as a defendant in the suit, which claims that the woman filed a “frivolous civil lawsuit” against Brown in January 2022 and that that her allegations of sexual assault and battery “were determined to be entirely fabricated, leading to the withdrawal of her attorneys and dismissal of the case.” The complaint accuses the Jane Doe of having “completely disregarded the facts in an attempt for fame and fortune.”
Brown’s legal team also highlight the Jane Doe’s alleged “history of violence and erratic behavior [that] should have raised red flags for any responsible journalist,” and includes an image of an alleged restraining order against the woman by an ex-boyfriend in 2021 “after she physically assaulted him, threatened him with a knife, and engaged in online harassment.” His attorneys accuse Warner Bros. and its producers of disregarding the incident, and claim they “instead framed her as a reliable source to bolster their sensationalized portrayal instead of the physical aggressor in a romantic relationship.”
“This case is about protecting the truth,” said Brown’s lawyer, Levi McCathern, in a statement. “Despite being provided with evidence disproving their claims, the producers of this documentary intentionally promoted false and defamatory information, knowingly disregarding their ethical obligations as journalists.”
Representatives for Warner Bros. and Ample did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last summer, Brown was named in a second lawsuit over a claim he and his entourage allegedly assaulted against four concertgoers backstage in Fort Worth, Texas, in July, with a security guard hired for the event alleging that he was injured trying to stop the violence.