Nicki Minaj's Harassment Lawsuit Goes Away, Husband Remains On The Hook

Nicki Minaj has one less legal burden on her shoulders. A harassment lawsuit filed against the rapper by her husband's accuser has now been dropped, but that doesn't mean the battle has ended.

Per TMZ, Jennifer Hough voluntarily dismissed the harassment lawsuit against the rapper. As you might know, Hough, an alleged rape victim of Nicki's husband, Kenneth Petty, sued the "Barbie Tingz" rapper for intimidation and harassment in August.

At the time, Hough claimed that Nicki and her legal team tried to make her recant her story about Petty, who was convicted in 1995 of trying to rape her.

In the lawsuit, she alleged that Nicki and Petty offered her $20,000 in exchange for signing a statement that takes back the rape accusations made against the rapper's husband. In addition, the couple was also behind numerous harassing phone calls and visits, pressuring her to stay quiet.

Perhaps the most shocking claim in the lawsuit was the allegation that Nicki's associates offered Hough's brother $500,000 to help with recanting her rape allegations. Hough has now decided to let it all go despite the accusations against the "Anaconda" rapper and a claim that they even had a one-on-one phone call.

However, that's not the case for Nicki's legal team. According to the rapper's attorney Judd Burstein, plans are in place to go after Hough to recoup the legal expense she caused in the first place.

In an email sent by Burstein to Hough's lawyer Tyrone Blackburn, she was accused of filing the harassment lawsuit to score some easy money from the big-time entertainer. Burstein's rebuttal read:

In my view, your conduct in pursuing this case against Nicki represents the worst of our legal system: bottom-feeding lawyers who pursue frivolous actions against a celebrity assuming that they will be paid off if they throw enough dirt. 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.

While Nicki is seemingly off the hook, the opposite is the case for Petty, who is still named a defendant.

It's no surprise that Nicki has been dropped from the lawsuit, given that her lawyers have been questioning the integrity of Hough's accusations. As The Blast reported, in December, Nicki's legal team asked to sanction Hough on the basis that her allegations consisted of "inconsistencies and falsehoods."

In the motion filed, they accused Hough of twisting her story to cash out from the Grammy winner, highlighting her claim that she was forced to change her phone number because Nicki kept pestering her with calls as a blatant lie.

Nicki's attorney revealed that the reverse was the case as Hough was the one who reached out to "The Other Woman" star on the phone. She allegedly texted the rapper, "US Marshalls are asking questions. They showed up at my house."

Also, the allegations that they bribed her brother with $500,000 had no basis as the money couldn't be traced to Nicki and Petty or their associates. The legal team believed these discrepancies could help them overthrow the lawsuit, and it seemed it worked.

As we stated earlier, the ghost is clear for only Nicki and not her husband. He remains in murky waters, and the battle doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.

Last month, we reported that the sentencing for Petty's sex offender registration was postponed from January 24 to March 30. Petty first ran into trouble for failing to register as a sex offender in 2019 after the Beverly Hills Police arrested him.

After being released on a $20,000 bond, he was charged with failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California. It is worth noting that he is still registered as a sex offender in New York, his hometown.

After getting a federal judge to sign off on postponing the sentencing, Petty is expected to submit an expert report to explain why he should avoid any form of jail time. He is set to face ten years in prison with five years of mandatory supervised release on the table.

Although Petty was planning to enter a guilty plea for the January 24 hearing, now that it hasn't been shifted, he hopes to enter a not guilty plea and clear his name.