Last year, hp-hop mogul and Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons was sued for an alleged rape of an unnamed Def Jam exec in the 1990s. It wasn't the first lawsuit of its kind against Simmons, who stepped down from his businesses in 2017 as allegations of sexual misconduct began to pile up. In 2020, HBO Max aired On The Record, a documentary about music executive Drew Dixon's sexual assault allegations against Simmons. Now Simmons is suing the network.
Simmons' attorneys Imran H. Ansari and Carla DiMare tell TMZ that he has filed a claim against HBO, Warner Bros., Discovery, and the film's producers in New York. He's seeking at least $20 million for defamation, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy. Simmons' lawsuit alleges that the documentary "disregarded or suppressed" more than 20 witnesses refuting multiple women's claims against him and "disregarded nine consecutive credible and favorable CIA-grade polygraph" test results.
In his court filing, Simmons notes that Oprah Winfrey was originally a producer for On The Record but withdrew from the project after "publicly noting inconsistencies in the accusations." Winfrey did indeed remove herself from the project after facing pressure from Simmons; in 2020, she said she had reservations about the evidence against him, but this year she said she "unequivocally believes" his accusers.
Simmons' lawyers issued this statement to TMZ:
Despite voluminous support for Mr. Simmons in the form of credible information, persuasive evidence, witness statements, and calls for further investigation by notable members of the media, politics, and the civil rights movement, the defendants simply disregarded it, and released, and continue to re-release globally, a film that tremendously disparaged and damaged Mr. Simmons with its salacious and defamatory accusations, that he vehemently denies.
