{"id":6284,"date":"2025-06-05T08:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T08:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/russell-simmons-lawsuit-says-hbo-documentary-ignored-evidence\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T08:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T08:45:17","slug":"russell-simmons-lawsuit-says-hbo-documentary-ignored-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/russell-simmons-lawsuit-says-hbo-documentary-ignored-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Simmons Lawsuit Says HBO Documentary Ignored Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tRussell Simmons<\/strong> is suing HBO for defamation over a 2020 documentary focused on the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the film disregarded evidence in his favor \u2014 including \u201cCIA-grade polygraph results\u201d and Oprah Winfrey\u2019s withdrawal from the project.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a complaint filed Tuesday (June 3) in Manhattan court, attorneys for Simmons say the movie On The Record<\/em> defamed him by ignoring key information \u2014 including from over 20 witnesses \u2014 that would have \u201crefuted and rebutted\u201d the allegations that were \u201cfalsely made against plaintiff in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe evidence and information were made available to defendants, including then CEO of WarnerMedia John Stankey, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, Casey Bloys,\u201d the star\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cHowever, the Defendants disregarded and\/or suppressed said materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpokespeople for HBO and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday (June 4).<\/p>\n

\n\tSimmons, who founded Def Jam Recordings in 1984 and later built a formidable hip-hop empire, has faced a slew of abuse allegations since 2017 \u2014 first in an investigative article by the New York Times<\/em>, then in the HBO doc. The film, directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, centered on claims made by Drew Dixon<\/strong>, a former A&R at Def Jam who says Simmons raped her, but also featured interviews with several other alleged victims.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his complaint, Simmons says he provided HBO and the filmmakers with ample evidence that was \u201csupportive and favorable\u201d to him and would have countered those allegations. And he says the network was urged to consider that info by \u201cluminaries in media and politics,\u201d including \u201ccivil rights leaders and members of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSimmons says the favorable evidence included \u201cnine consecutive credible and favorable CIA-grade polygraph results\u201d \u2014 presumably tests taken by him about the accusations. He also says HBO ignored the fact that Winfrey, the movie\u2019s original executive producer, had withdrawn her support after \u201cpublicly noting inconsistencies in the accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDefendants willfully, and\/or recklessly, disregarded and suppressed said information and evidence, and published, and continue to republish defamatory content,\u201d attorneys for Simmons wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit could face procedural challenges. The statute of limitations for libel lawsuits in New York is one year, a limit that has clearly lapsed for a movie released in 2020. Simmons\u2019 lawyers will likely argue that he has continued to be defamed by new re-issues of the documentary, particularly in foreign markets.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new case is a role reversal for Simmons, who has already been on the receiving end of a defamation lawsuit from Dixon over claims that he defamed her by suggesting during a podcast interview that she was lying about her allegations. He\u2019s also facing a sexual assault lawsuit from another unnamed alleged victim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russell Simmons is suing HBO for defamation over a 2020 documentary focused on the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the film disregarded evidence in his favor \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2121,983,6194,303,4014,4629],"class_list":["post-6284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-documentary","tag-evidence","tag-hbo","tag-lawsuit","tag-russell","tag-simmons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}