Travis Scott has been hit with an emergency motion by the plaintiffs in the Astroworld case, who have demanded that the Houston rapper turn over his phone records.
However, according to Rolling Stone, Scott’s attorneys has said the delay was due to the phone “[falling] off a boat in January of 2022 and landed somewhere at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and is not able to be retrieved.”
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The outlet obtained a copy of the court transcript on Thursday (September 21), where it was revealed that the law firms of Arnold and Itkin, Roberts Markland, and Lyons and Simmons filed a joint emergency motion to compel production on September 11. Within that motion, the attorneys demanded that phones from Scott himself, as well as from his entity XX Global Inc., and from his entity’s employees all be turned over so the phone records could be authenticated.
It was the deposition of Cactus Jack’s general manager, David Stromberg, that prompted the emergency motion after Stromberg testified that he “never turned his phone over to lawyers for Travis Scott for imaging.”
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“Mr. Stromberg’s testimony and colloquy of counsel on the record suggests that not a single message, WeChat conversation, photo, video, or other message from Mr. Stromberg, Mr. Scott, or anyone on his team’s phone has been searched for and reviewed for production,” the lawyers wrote in their motion, per the outlet.
The transcript also said that Travis Scott will be deposed for two more days at the beginning of October.
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Scott’s upcoming depositions follow his lengthy, eight-hour grilling on Monday (September 18) where he faced questions about the tragedy, which has spawned hundreds of lawsuits.
“Travis Scott’s deposition is typical legal procedure. What is not typical is how the media continues to focus on him despite being cleared of any wrongdoing by extensive government investigations, including by the Houston Police Department,” Scott’s spokesperson Ted Anastasiou said in a statement.
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“Travis is fully cooperating with the legal process while still remaining committed to his tour in support of his record-breaking album, ‘UTOPIA,’ and his charitable efforts to support at-risk communities.”
Scott isn’t facing criminal charges related to the festival deaths as he was exonerated by a grand jury in June.
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The “SICKO MODE” hitmaker was interviewed by an investigator days after the November 2021 festival and claimed that he was unaware of the severity of the tragedy while on stage.
“He stated he was in a ‘trance’ going through his performance and getting into the music,” read the report. “He noted that there was not a ‘high commotion’ and that everybody was just looking at him perform.”
It continued: “He clarified by stating he was told in his earpiece, ‘Yo Trav, you got to wrap it up, it’s getting kinda hectic out there.’ He stated again that he was supposed to go until 10:30 but he was told to stop short after Drake got off the stage. Again, there was no mention to the severity of the situation.”
The 10 people killed ranged in age from nine to 27, while hundreds more were injured during the crowd surge. Over 1,500 civil lawsuits have been filed in total, with a large majority against a combination of Scott and Live Nation, who hosted the Houston festival.
A 1,200-page report was released by the Houston Police Department in July, ironically on the same day that Travis Scott released his latest album UTOPIA.
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The following month, Scott and Live Nation quietly settled a third lawsuit with the family of one of the Astroworld victims, as 14-year-old John Hilgert’s family decided to settle out of court for an undisclosed sum.
A judge scheduled the first of the civil trials to head to court on May 6, 2024.
