Nicki Minaj has been dropped from a harassment lawsuit filed by her husband Kenneth Petty's attempted rape victim.
Jennifer Hough sued the Starships hitmaker and her husband in August, claiming they both harassed, threatened, and intimidated her in an attempt to stop her from talking about the rape allegation. Petty was convicted of attempting to rape Hough in 1994.
On Wednesday, Hough filed legal documents to dismiss Minaj as a defendant from the lawsuit "without prejudice", meaning she can refile the claims again in the future. The lawsuit is still pending against Petty.
Speaking about the decision, Hough's attorney Tyrone Blackburn told Billboard, "The case against Nicki was voluntarily dismissed. The case against Kenneth Petty is still ongoing. Stay tuned!"
The rapper's attorney Judd Burstein has yet to made a public statement about the dismissal, but he reacted to the news in an email to Hough's legal team on Wednesday.
"While (this) may be the end of your efforts to extort Nicki into a settlement, it is just the beginning of Nicki's and my efforts to make you pay for your disgraceful conduct," he wrote in the email, obtained by Billboard and TMZ. "You forced my client to spend over $300,000 in fees to defend a case which even my Labradoodle, Gracie, could see was frivolous on both the facts and the law."
Burstein called Hough's team "bottom-feeding lawyers" who "surrendered" without "receiving a penny" from his client.
Hough is still seeking a default judgment against Petty. A hearing in the case is scheduled for 20 January.
