Earlier today, we reported on the outpouring of support that Kesha has received from fans and other musical artists after a judge denied her request to be freed from the contract that is forcing her to continue working with Sony and producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald despite allegations that he verbally and sexually assaulted her for years. Now, a lawyer representing Gottwald has released a statement about Kesha and the #FreeKesha movement on Twitter, and it’s surprisingly respectful of both the woman herself and her supporters. Just kidding—the lawyer says Kesha is making all of this up for money.
That comes from Rolling Stone, which quotes the lawyer’s statement as saying that Kesha has “cavalierly subjected Dr. Luke and his family to trial by Twitter, using a vicious smear campaign to ruin his reputation for financial gain while failing to support their claims.” Gottwald and his lawyers argue that this whole thing is an elaborate scheme to get Kesha “a more lucrative contract,” noting multiple times that Kesha “never reported any purported abuse or rape to any law enforcement authority” or to Sony Music itself. On top of that, the statement refers to the idea of Kesha not being “free” as “a myth,” with Gottwald’s lawyers claiming that she can still record and release music with another producer at Sony if she wants to.
However, the points about Kesha still being free to record music for Sony and supposedly not reporting the abuse to anyone (including Sony) ignore a key point from her lawsuit. Back in September, Kesha expanded her original suit against Gottwald to include Sony Music as a whole, claiming that the company was aware of the allegations and chose to ignore them, putting her and other artists at risk. Whether or not it’s true that Kesha told Sony, it’s already been established that she doesn’t want to work with the producer or label, rendering the “but you can work with another producer” argument irrelevant.
You can read the full statement from Gottwald’s lawyers at the Rolling Stone link above.