Lizzo camp derides accusers as “opportunists” with a “fabricated sob story”

The rhetoric between Lizzo’s camp and the former employees suing her for creating an unsafe working environment has never been especially polite—the musician, and her lawyers, have already derided the accusations against her as “ridiculous” and “sensationalized”—but new legal filings from her legal team this weekend have gone pretty thoroughly on the offensive. Filing a motion to have the case dismissed this week, Lizzo attorney Martin D. Singer didn’t mince words, calling the three dancers who filed the lawsuit (per Billboard) “opportunitists” “with an axe to grind,” and labeling their accusations against their former employer as a “fabricated sob story.”

The three dancers in question brought forth their allegations back in August, filing a lawsuit in which they accused Lizzo and her team (including dance captain Shirlene Quigley) of creating a hostile work environment, including fat-shaming them, and pressuring them to touch performers at a strip club Lizzo brought her staff to in Amsterdam.

Among other things, the dismissal statement—which is aiming to get the lawsuit tossed out on the “anti-SLAPP” statute meant to target “meritless” lawsuits—accuses the women, two of whom were dismissed from Lizzo’s employ ahead of the lawsuit, of “a pattern of gross misconduct and failure to perform their job up to par… Instead of taking any accountability for their own actions, plaintiffs filed this lawsuit against defendants out of spite and in pursuit of media attention, public sympathy and a quick payday with minimal effort.”

In addition to the statement, Lizzo’s camp included in their filings sworn statements from 18 people who work for Lizzo, denying the allegations on various accounts. (Tour manager Molly Gordon, for instance, said that she spoke to dancer Arianna Davis, one of the plaintiffs, at the Banenanbar in Amsterdam, and Davis didn’t tell her she felt uncomfortable with the proceedings.) Others, including other dancers, stated that Lizzo had always been supportive of their body shapes, or pushed back against accusations that Quigley had bullied employees over their religious choices.

In their response to the claim, the legal team for the plaintiffs noted that every person who made one of these sworn statements was either a defendant themselves, or in Lizzo’s employ. “Their statements can’t be considered by the judge,” attorney Neama Rahmani asserted in response to the dismissal request. “That’s a question for the jury. Our clients have dozens of independent witnesses who support their stories, and we continue to receive inquiries from other former Lizzo employees who want to be new plaintiffs.”