Cardi B's attorneys have responded to Emani Ellis’s motion for a new trial, slamming the effort as “entirely frivolous.”
As you'll recall, the Am I the Drama? artist was cleared in the former medical facility security guard’s assault trial in September. Ellis, as reported at the time, had leveled a number of claims against Cardi, including assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, in connection with a confrontation she alleges occurred in 2018.
On Oct. 31, Ellis filed a motion for a new trial. Fast forward to this week, and Cardi’s attorneys have issued their response, calling for Ellis’s motion to be denied.
“[Ellis] fails to establish any permitted grounds for a new trial,” Cardi’s attorneys write in their opposition, filed in a California court on Nov. 12 and viewed by Complex. “Instead, she repeats her counsel’s accusations of misconduct that are both false and not grounds for a new trial.”
The Grammy-winning rapper’s attorneys go on to address specific arguments made by Ellis’s lawyers, including a claim that defense counsel had at one point “physically intervened” outside a courthouse In August, an allegation the plaintiff had likened to assault and battery. This accusation, per Cardi’s lawyers, is “patently false.”
Others arguments made in Ellis’s motion for a new trial are criticized as being based on hearsay, including claims centered on a pen-tossing incident outside a courthouse in September and a 2023 microphone toss.
“Plaintiff’s counsel’s speculation, knowingly false statements, and inaction are not grounds for a new trial,” Cardi’s attorneys argued.
“I swear to God I will say it in my deathbed: I did not touch that woman,” Cardi told reporters in September after being cleared at trial. “I did not touch that girl, I didn't lay my hands on that girl. With that being said, this time around I'm gonna be nice. The next person to try to do a frivolous lawsuit against me, I'm going to countersue and I'm gonna make you pay because this is not OK.”
Ellis had her own reaction to the outcome of the multimillion-dollar case, telling reporters her efforts were “never about the money” and were instead “about the accountability.”