A judge says Investigation Discovery complied with journalistic standards in its 2024 documentary chronicling domestic and sexual abuse allegations against Chris Brown.
A Monday (Jan. 12) court order dismisses Brown’s $500 million defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery and Ample Entertainment, the production company behind Chris Brown: A History of Violence. The R&B star sued almost exactly a year ago, claiming this documentary was “full of lies and deception.”
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The lawsuit’s primary issue was with the documentary’s spotlight on a woman who alleges the singer raped her on a yacht owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2020. Brown says these claims are false and disproven by inconsistencies in the woman’s account, as well as her own violent past and the fact that she concealed key text messages after reporting the incident to Miami police.
But in Monday’s order, Judge Colin Leis says Investigation Discovery presents the perspectives of both sides in a balanced manner.
“The court has personally viewed the entire documentary. The documentary recites most of the inconsistencies plaintiff notes, including the existence of the text messages,” writes the judge. “Media defendants thus presented a ‘fair and true’ report of [the woman’s] statements and the judicial record and proceedings.”
Judge Leis also says there’s no merit to Brown claiming that the network defamed him by including an interview in which culture writer Scaachi Koul says the singer has a “predisposition for punching women in the face.” As the judge points out, Brown “has admitted to punching the singer Rihanna.”
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“Plaintiff presents no evidence that Scaachi Koul’s opinions about plaintiff’s predilections are false,” says the judge.
The order strikes Brown’s lawsuit under California’s anti-SLAPP law, which curbs the use of litigation to target First Amendment-protected free speech. This statute requires plaintiffs who sue journalists to establish at least “minimal merit” in order to move forward with a lawsuit — a standard that Judge Leis says has not been met here.
Lawyers for Brown and Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately return requests for comment on the decision. Brown has the right to appeal the dismissal if he chooses.
