Russell Simmons has made it clear that he wants a defamation suit brought against him by Drew Dixon to be dismissed, because he’s claiming that he didn’t defame her in the first place.
Radar Online has learned that the embattled mogul is claiming that he didn’t defame Dixon because he didn’t mention her by name when he spoke of sexual assault lawsuits against him back in December 2023 — and also because everything he said was simply his opinion.
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“[None of the] statements alleged in the Complaint are defamatory as a matter of law, because all the statements are opinion — not fact — and [Dixon] is not clearly identifiable in any of the statements,” the motion reads.
Dixon claimed that the alleged assault happened during the period she worked for Simmons, back in the 1990s.
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Last month, Simmons was blindsided by the service of two different lawsuits, with a process server tracking him down in Indonesia to serve him in both the aforementioned defamation suit and a sexual assault lawsuit.
According to court documents obtained by HipHopDX, Simmons was originally served on March 5, but the affidavits of service were filed on March 22. In both cases, Daniel Ayoub served Simmons at the Gdas Bali Health & Wellness Spa, and the embattled mogul was none-too-pleased about the turn of events.
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“Ah shit, fuck,” Simmons said.
Ayoub went on to say that Simmons then got on the phone with someone who appeared to be his attorney. “South African guy just handed me an envelope. And he’s with a big Black guy,” he said on the phone. “Should I open the doc now, or wait til later? How did these people get in here?”
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Ayoub confirmed that he’d served Simmons from “the state of New York,” referring to the defamation suit, which was filed in New York Supreme Court by Drew Dixon. Dixon, a former Def Jam employee, had previously accused Simmons of sexual assault in the On the Record documentary in 2020.
Her defamation suit stems from comments Simmons made on the In Depth with Graham Besinger podcast in December, 2023 — comments where he allegedly, according to Dixon’s suit, “continued a concerted and malicious campaign to discredit Ms. Dixon and to so damage her reputation that Ms. Dixon’s factual reporting of what he did to her would not be credited.”
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Ayoub also served Russell Simmons in the pending sexual assault lawsuit filed in federal court by a Jane Doe, who was a former employee at his label, and who first filed the suit in February.
Filed under Jane Doe in New York federal court, the lawsuit alleges false imprisonment, battery, emotional distress and a violation of the state’s gender-motivated violence law.
The plaintiff claims that the Queens native invited her to his apartment for work, though he started wrestling with her “in an attempt to appear playful” soon after and then pinned her down on a bed aggressively.
“Ms. Doe repeatedly told Mr. Simmons to get off of her, but he refused,” court documents state. “Mr. Simmons proceeded to rape her.”
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Following that, the Hip Hop businessman allegedly continued to torment his employee at the workplace despite others telling him to stop, ultimately forcing her to resign in 1997.
