Rachel's lawyers, Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman, has reacted to the motion filed by the 'Dancing with the Stars' alum, calling it 'laughable' in a new interview.
- May 1, 2024
AceShowbiz - Ariana Madix has responded to her former "Vanderpump Rules" co-star Rachel Leviss' revenge porn lawsuit against her and Tom Sandoval. According to new court documents, Ariana filed a motion to get the lawsuit thrown out.
The legal documents reveal that Ariana's legal team calls Rachel's case an example of a "SLAPP" suit, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. According to the Cornell Law School, a SLAPP lawsuit is defined as legal action taken by one party that is intended to "dissuade their critics from continuing to produce negative publicity. By definition, SLAPP suits do not have any true legal claims against the critics."
Ariana's lawyers additionally ask that all three of the claims filed against their client, revenge porn creation, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, be dismissed. Jordan Susman and Margo Arnold, the lawyers for the "Dancing with the Stars" alum, are also asking that per the anti-SLAPP statute in California, the state where the case is based, Ariana's attorneys' fees be paid by Rachel, saying that her suit is "an abuse of the legal process."
Ariana alleges that through her lawsuit, Rachel, who previously went by Raquel Leviss, wants to "punish" and to deter her and others from "exercising their constitutionally protected right of free speech" instead of seeking to "vindicate any cognizable rights." Ariana's attorneys also insistthat Ariana didn't know about Rachel's affair with her then-boyfriend Tom.
"Ms. Madix did not know about the affair. But on March 1, 2023, Ms. Madix learned about it in the worst possible way: by discovering a video on Mr. Sandoval’s phone of Plaintiff and Mr. Sandoval having phone sex," Madix's legal counsel claims.
The lawyers add in the legal motion, "One thing Ms. Madix did not do was share or show any of the video footage she found on Mr. Sandoval's phone with anyone but Plaintiff. In fact, Ms. Madix could not have shared such footage because Mr. Sandoval deleted it from her phone within minutes of Ms. Madix confronting him-a fact Ms. Madix stated in writing 33 minutes after sending the videos to Plaintiff."
Meanwhile, Rachel' lawyers, Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman, called Ariana's motion "laughable" in an interview with ET on Monday, April 29. "The only thing more laughable than Ariana's motion is her fairytale account of how she discovered the relationship from Tom's phone. Meanwhile, we look forward to cross examining her on her declaration, as we have irrefutable evidence that the videos were distributed," they said.
They continued, "Lastly, the forensic 'expert' states that the video is not 'NOW' on her phone, well after the events in question and with months of notice that her actions had put her in legal jeopardy."
