when Kevin Hart Three years ago, the superstar comedian posted on Instagram about the bizarre 2017 sex tape scandal and related felony racketeering charges that were filed and ultimately dropped against his friend Jonathan “JT” Jackson, saying he was happy to be “moving on” from that chapter in his life.
Now the exact language Hart used to deliver the unscripted message to his millions of followers is the subject of a new $12 million breach of contract lawsuit filed by Jackson in Los Angeles.
Submitted on Wednesday, Rolling StoneJackson says Hart’s social media post, shared on Oct. 27, 2021, was never spontaneous. Rather, it was the subject of a “deeply negotiated” settlement agreement signed by the parties approximately three months prior, Jackson clarified. According to the lawsuit, Hart was contractually obligated to use specific language “publicly exonerating” Jackson. Jackson is a professional bowler and actor who played a supporting role in Hart’s 2014 film, “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Think like a manHart allegedly needed to point out that not only had the criminal charges against Jackson been dropped, but that it had been made completely clear that Jackson had no involvement in the blackmail scheme, and that Hart had lost a “valuable friendship” in the scandal.
For example, Jackson alleges that Hart specifically agreed to state, “I have lost someone close to me that I loved and still love very much or have strong feelings for, and I am proud that all charges against JT Jackson have been dropped and that he is innocent and has nothing to do with this matter.” According to Jackson, 47, Hart “clearly violated that agreement.”
“JT Jackson was recently acquitted and the charges against him were dropped and I am finally able to speak out about things I never could before,” Hart said in an Instagram video. Hart noted that their friendship was “gone,” but his comments were neutral. “It’s over. I’m glad it’s over,” he said of the saga. Hart stopped short of saying Jackson “has nothing to do with this.”
“Hart’s statements, detailed in the agreement, were critical to repairing and ameliorating the serious damage done to Plaintiffs’ reputations by the unfounded extortion allegations that Hart vigorously promoted and publicized,” Jackson’s new complaint states. Hart’s eventual statement “dilutes this intent by positioning the exoneration as the conclusion of a chapter in Hart’s own life, rather than a clear and unequivocal exoneration of Plaintiffs,” the complaint says.
A representative for Hart, 45, did not immediately respond. Rolling StoneRequest for comments.
The new lawsuit was filed by Jackson’s lawyer, Daniel L. Ryback. Controversy It started when Hart and Jackson went on a trip to Las Vegas in August 2017. A few weeks later, Hart’s wife, Eniko Parrish, who was pregnant at the time, allegedly received an anonymous message that read, “Unfortunately, your husband Kevin Hart is cheating on you,” according to court documents in a related case. The message allegedly contained a Dropbox link to an edited video of Hart engaging in intimate acts with a woman in a private suite at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. That night, Hart posted an Instagram video. He apologized to his wife and family. He admitted to an “error in judgment” and vowed “I will not allow anyone to profit financially from my mistake.” In response to the post, a person with the Instagram handle “Misterjood” published a comment saying, “I will release the video unless you give me $5 million. There is no need to release it. You had a chance.”
A few hours later, on September 17, 2017, the now-defunct website Fameolous.com released the secretly recorded video footage. A few days later, TMZ reported that the FBI was investigating a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against Hart. That same week, model Montia Sabbagh held a press conference with her then-lawyer Lisa Bloom to identify herself as the woman in the video. She maintained her innocence, saying she had nothing to do with the recording or the alleged extortion. (Sabbagh later filed a $60 million lawsuit against Jackson and Hart, alleging that the two conspired to create and distribute the footage to help promote Hart. Irresponsible ToursIn August 2022, a judge dismissed Sabbagh’s civil lawsuit against Jackson, citing Sabbagh’s “carelessness,” specifically his failure to obtain Jackson’s case files from the prosecution, who had dropped two racketeering counts at the time. Sabbagh’s remaining lawsuit against Hart is scheduled to be dismissed in June 2023 after Sabbagh’s lawyers failed to appear for a final pretrial status conference.
According to Jackson’s new lawsuit, Hart and his legal team played key roles in the events that led to his arrest. Jackson alleges that Hart’s campaign misled investigators about key evidence just before more than a dozen armed police officers, guns drawn, kicked down the door to Hart’s home and searched the house on Jan. 23, 2018. In a separate lawsuit filed last December against members of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Jackson alleges that the search warrant was based on an earlier one that listed Mister Jude’s demand for $5 million as an alleged extortion attempt. In the warrant, investigators described the demand as a “private message” sent before Hart posted his apology video.
In the end, the District Attorney’s investigator who sought the search warrant admitted that the Mister Jude message was not a private message but a public comment posted by someone in response to Hart’s public apology video. It had never been linked to Jackson. After this revelation, prosecutors dismissed one of the two racketeering charges. In the end, prosecutors dismissed the entire case.
Jackson filed a lawsuit against DA officials in December, alleging they violated his civil rights, fabricated evidence and engaged in malicious prosecution. Officials moved to dismiss the lawsuit in March, arguing they had immunity. They also reiterated their claim that electronic devices seized from Jackson during a 2018 search revealed that they “possessed a sex tape and emails relating to Jackson” of Jackson. [Jackson] They tried to sell the tapes to the media before they were made public.”
According to previous court records cited in the motion to dismiss, a media outlet received an email from someone trying to sell the video before its release. The media outlet allegedly shared the email with Hart’s team, and Hart’s lawyers responded by having an anonymous seller posing as a sex tape broker eager to buy the footage contacted. Subsequent negotiations eventually fell apart. Prosecutors alleged that the email address contacted by Hart’s fake broker was linked to Jackson’s IP address.
Jackson, meanwhile, denies he committed any crime. crime“Despite the allegations and the relevance of the IP addresses, the fact is that I was not arrested on the day of the search on January 23, 2018. I was arrested on April 30, 2018 in a completely unrelated matter regarding an extortion email sent to Kevin Hart on April 27, 2018. This delay in arrest calls into question the strength and reliability of the evidence originally asserted by the District Attorney’s Office, especially if an IP address was relevant,” Jackson said in a statement. Rolling Stone.
Jackson’s new lawsuit alleges that “false accusations” were the driving force behind his arrest. In particular, he alleges that Hart “claimed” to have received an email on April 27, 2018 from someone demanding 20 Bitcoin to prevent further release of the sex tape footage. The email, allegedly sent seven months after the scandal broke, was reported to prosecutors and cited by the district attorney’s investigators as the basis for Jackson’s arrest. Jackson argues in his new lawsuit that a copy of the email that prosecutors eventually shared shows it was “fabricated.” He alleges that analysis by two experts revealed that the email was created using Microsoft Word on May 17, 2019, more than a year after the extortion attempt.
In his lawsuit, Jackson said his career and reputation were severely damaged after the failed prosecution. He said it was further damaged by Hart’s comments in the documentary series “Don’t F**K This Up.” “Don’t F**K This Up” is a six-episode reality show about Hart’s life that premiered on Netflix in December 2019. In the series, which is still streaming, Hart reflects on the sex tape scandal and the end of his friendship with Jackson. He said the incident is “painful to talk about” and mourns the loss of “someone I trusted and loved so deeply.” It’s painful.
Though the series premiered after all charges against Jackson were dropped, Hart’s longtime friend and fellow comedian Will “Spank” Horton still appears on screen summarizing the prosecution’s failed theory of the case. “I think he probably set up a camera in his room, videotaped the act, went home and edited the video, and then sent him an email or ransom note that said, ‘If you don’t pay me, I’m going to release this video.’ I think it was $10 million or something like that,” Horton says. (After the series premiered, Jackson began preparing for a possible defamation lawsuit against Hart, which led to a 2021 settlement and is now at the center of Jackson’s breach of contract allegations.)
Jackson says the now-dropped criminal charges and the hit Netflix series, which was reportedly viewed by millions, have caused lasting harm to his career and health. “The continued availability of this content perpetuates a false narrative and has caused continuing harm to Plaintiff’s professional and personal life,” the lawsuit reads. Jackson, a Navy veteran, claims the impact has “exacerbated” his service-related PTSD and “caused severe mental health issues.”
Jackson is suing Hart and Heartbeat Productions for breach of contract, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is seeking at least $12 million in damages, plus punitive damages to be determined at trial.
“This series of events has caused deep emotional distress and major professional setbacks to both me and my wife. It is heartbreaking that someone I considered my brother and my pots and pans for 16 years now finds himself on the other side of things,” Jackson said in a statement. Rolling Stone“After everything that has happened, I still wish him the best. However, it has been three years since Kevin promised to help me clear my name, to no avail. That’s why I’m here. Through this lawsuit, I seek to clear my name, seek accountability and prevent this injustice from happening to anyone else.”
