A month after winning a $4 million defamation verdict against YouTuber Tasha K, Cardi B is now asking a federal judge to permanently ban her from posting “harmful and disgusting lies” to the internet.
The rapper sued Tasha K in 2019 for posting dozens of videos that contained shocking claims about her, including that she had contracted herpes. After a January trial that saw Cardi herself take the stand, a jury found that that the YouTuber had legally defamed her.
Explore
Explore
Cardi B
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In a new filing on Thursday evening, Cardi asked the judge to impose a so-called permanent injunction – a court ruling that will force Tasha to pull the defamatory claims from the internet and ban her from reposting them.
“Plaintiff filed this action because defendants refused to stop targeting her with harmful and disgusting lies,” Cardi’s attorneys wrote. “Damages alone are inadequate to address the constant ongoing threat of defendants repeating the defamatory statements [and] defendants have explicitly said that they will continue publishing the defamatory statements unless an injunction is issued.”
The filing cited statements from Tasha, made both in videos and on the witness stand, in which she said she would not permanently remove the videos about Cardi unless she was forced to do so by a judge.
Anticipating that Tasha’s attorneys will argue that such an injunction violates her First Amendment rights, Cardi’s attorneys said the blogger does not have a constitutional right to “false and defamatory speech.” They also said the injunction would “narrowly tailored,” covering only the false statements at issue in the case and not all future speech.
Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almánzar, sued Tasha K, whose real name is Latasha Kebe, over what the rapper’s lawyers called “malicious campaign” to hurt her reputation.
One video cited in the lawsuit includes a statement that Cardi had done sex acts “with beer bottles on f—ing stripper stages.” Others said she had contracted herpes; that she had been a prostitute; that she had cheated on her husband; and that she had done hard drugs.
A trial kicked off on Jan. 10 in Atlanta federal court, during which both women took the stand. Cardi testified that she felt “suicidal” in the wake of Kebe’s videos, and said that “only an evil person could do that sh–.” Kebe initially admitted that she knowingly published lies about the rapper, but she later tried to walk back that statement when examined by her own attorneys.
Eventually, jurors held Kebe legally liable on three separate claims from Cardi: defamation, invasion of privacy through portrayal in a false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They awarded the $1.25 million in “general” damages, $1.5 million in punitive damages, and another $1.3 million in legal fees incurred by Cardi.
Kebe is expected to file an appeal to the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but such a challenge has not yet been lodged.
Cardi B is represented by Lisa F. Moore and William A. Pequignot of the law firm Moore Pequignot LLC and by Gary P. Adelman and Sarah M. Matz of Adelman Matz PC. Kebe was represented by Sadeer Sabbak and Olga Izmaylova of Sabbak & Izmaylova PC.
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/08/15/063/n/1922564/3e438c4064dc18df5cb1d7.27555780_.jpg)
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/08/24/902/n/1922564/ea53900964e7bffeb0bd51.12857548_.jpg)
