Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, have filed a defamation lawsuit against singer Ray J following claims he made about the two being tied to a RICO investigation.
“Unable to accept the end of his fleeting relationship with Ms. Kardashian over 20 years ago, Ray J has repeatedly sought to attach himself to plaintiffs’ names and exploit their prominence for personal gain,” the 13-page lawsuit reads. “Ray J’s defamatory statements about plaintiffs are part of a broader campaign of harassment designed to generate publicity for his flailing career and satisfy his acknowledged animosity toward the Kardashian family.”
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It slammed the “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood” star’s claims as “fabricated” and “blatantly false” and that he’s doing this as a way to revive “his own fading notoriety.”
Kardashian and Jenner are being represented by lawyers Alex Spiro and Michael Lifrak.
In the early 2000s, Kardashian and the R&B singer dated and infamously appeared in a sex tape together, which the Skims founder claimed was leaked. However, Ray J, whose real name is William Ray Norwood Jr., claimed Kardashian and Jenner were the ones who released it.
Back in May, Ray J slammed his ex and her family while appearing on the TMZ Tubi documentary “United States V. Sean Combs: Inside the Diddy Trial.”
“If you told me the Kardashians was being charged for racketeering, I might believe it,” he said.
Then, during a Sept. 24 livestream with reality personality and rapper Chrisean Rock, the “I Wish” singer said, “The federal RICO I’m about to drop on Kris and Kim is about to be crazy,” he exclaimed. “The feds is coming, there’s nothing I can do about it… It’s worse than Diddy. It’s worse than Diddy.”
The lawsuit said the singer “provided no evidence whatsoever for these explosive accusations.”
“No such federal investigation exists; no law enforcement agency has initiated any criminal proceedings or investigations related to racketeering charges against Ms. Kardashian or Ms. Jenner; and no credible evidence whatsoever supports these inflammatory allegations,” it reads.
“Ray J’s defamatory statements were not careless exaggerations but calculated falsehoods – part of a decades-long effort to trade on plaintiffs’ reputations, undermine their businesses, and inflict emotional and reputational harm,” it continued. “Ray J’s conduct represents an egregious abuse of social media and public platforms to weaponize lies about nonexistent criminal investigations while fully aware that such allegations, even when baseless, carry the power to damage plaintiffs’ livelihoods and hard-earned reputations.”
However, the mother and daughter’s legal team say Ray J’s “antagonistic behavior” towards the women goes back over a decade, when he released the song “I Hit It First” in 2013. Court papers say the single “was widely understood as a disparaging reference to Ms. Kardashian.”
While the lawsuit is for defamation, it includes the tort of “false light publicity.”
Kardashian and Jenner are seeking actual and punitive damages, which will be determined at a jury trial.
In a statement to Page Six, Spiro said, “Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian have never brought a defamation claim before, nor have they been distracted by noise, but this false and serious allegation left no choice.”
A RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which fights organized crime.
“The power of RICO lies in its conspiracy provision, based on an enterprise rationale, that allows tying together apparently unrelated crimes with a common objective into a prosecutable pattern of racketeering. In addition, RICO provides for severe penalties and permits a defendant to be convicted and separately punished for both the underlying crimes that constitute the pattern of racketeering activity and for a substantive violation of RICO,” the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs explained.
KTLA 5 has reached out to Ray J for a statement and is awaiting a response.
The post Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner sue Ray J for defamation over RICO claims appeared first on KTLA.
