Over the weekend, Justin Bieber was accused of sexual assault by two different women.
Bieber, 26, took a beat before addressing the claims, tweeting that he “wanted to make sure [he] gathered the facts” before making any statement. He denied everything, making many mentions of former flame Selena Gomez along the way.
He backed up his whereabouts with magazine articles and various screenshots, most of which included Gomez’s name.
With both the pop stars trending on Twitter, someone said:
“There was absolutely no reason for him to mention Selena several times.” via @Selenaxririi (continued below)
Anonymous woman accuses Justin Bieber of sexually assaulting her at the Four Seasons in 2014, Bieber’s camp deny the claims and say he was staying at an Airbnb on that date. pic.twitter.com/nXMSQMqmpi
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 21, 2020
“If this was partially to say ‘I had a gf back then and it was selena so I would never do that’ it’s FAILING cause everyone knows the amount of times he cheated on Selena, she does NOT need to be mentioned,” they wrote.” – via @Selenaxririi
It was met with mixed response.
The top reply believed Bieber might be hoping to use Gomez as an alibi or witness (as he said he “will be working with twitter and authorities to take legal action”):
However, the original poster said “there’s legitimate proof against her being there” at the time of the allegations, and “he’s only using her name as a kind of defensive shield.”
As her story told I did surprise a crowd in Austin at Sxsw where I appeared on stage with my then assistant side stage and sang a few songs. What this person did not know was that I attended that show with my then gf Selena Gomez
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Another looked at Bieber’s history of bringing up her name:
“justin’s statements are like:
Selena was my girlfriend at that time, i was with Selena that day, that day Selena was with me at the hotel, SELENA, SELENA, SELENA and more SELENA” – via @lytlmmispureart
They, too, were met with similar responses:
“that’s the point of an alibi…. ??♀️” via @Princesschy6
“Yeah, he’s providing a witness to clear his name in this accusation. God forbid” – via @arps23
“if he was in court her name would be brought bcuz she was with him” – via @shamarkenny
“Um an alibi… I hope y’all never go to jail around me just for this cause I’m gonna act blind and deaf” – via @VickeyLynnLovey
Furthermore I stayed with Selena and our friends at an airbnb on the 9th and on the 10th stayed at a Westin because our hotel reservation at LÀ Quinta and not the four seasons was messed up. Here are the receipts for the hotel on the 10th pic.twitter.com/hLNHnvJ6XS
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
But several hopped to Gomez’s defense:
“I know he could mention her one time only but him kept repeating her name is creepy.” – via @BurestSoul
“And suddenly he’s really caring about Selena.” – via @TayPaintedMeRed
“Justin Bieber: I wasn’t there, because Selena. We left our Selena, got into the Selena and drove to the Selena.” – via @DarthLamarLord
It looks to me like he wants people to ask Selena to cover for him. Not happening! – via @ramonamadison
Later on, someone took Gomez out of the situation completely:
The original poster came back to take Gomez out of the picture completely:
“The fact that you guys are more worried about selena then the actual accusation is troubling.” – via @francelis
On march 10th selena left for work and I stayed at the Westin as the receipts clearly showed with my friends nick and john before I left town. Once again not at the four seasons. We booked it for a couple days to stay for the defjam show but I bailed on the 11th to head back home pic.twitter.com/Ku15SCYz91
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Out of Bieber 15 tweets denying the allegations, 6 of them explicitly mentioned Gomez’s name. Some people took up for Bieber in his replies, but others said he should “STOP USING HER AND MENTIONING HER.”
In March 2019, Bieber caught fire for feeding a troll that slammed his marriage to model Hailey Baldwin – they said it was fake. They never mentioned Gomez by name, but Bieber certainly did:
“I loved and love Selena she will always hold a place in my heart, but I am head over heels [sic] in love with my wife,” Bieber wrote back.
He later shared a screenshot to his Instagram Story (and asked others to do the same): “Stop sending hailey and I these messages if you love me screenshot this and repost everywhere.”
This article from 2014 talks about Selena being there with me. https://t.co/Jr2AE0brY2
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
