The decades-long battle between Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons and former music govt Drew Dixon is taking a brand new type after one in all America’s favourite discuss present hosts was simply entangled within the mess. Dixon has repeatedly and persistently accused Simmons of sexual assault—with him denying all accusations. However now, Dixon claims Oprah Winfrey has proof in connection to the case that she must cough up.
In line with Web page Six, Dixon and her authorized crew have subpoenaed Winfrey over paperwork, recordings, and “all different tangible issues” that corroborate the alleged sufferer’s claims. As The Root beforehand reported, Dixon is suing Simmons for defamation after she claimed he was behind a “concerted and malicious marketing campaign to discredit her” after a 1995 rape.
The subpoena comes months after Dixon’s swimsuit in opposition to the mogul and virtually 30 years after Dixon alleged Simmons raped her in his residence. She first got here public with the accusations in 2017, to which Simmons actively denied. He instructed Graham Besinger in a 2024 interview he’d “by no means been forceful in any of my relationships.” Simmons continued asking, “Might somebody need notoriety in a market the place folks thirst for fame?”
In that very same interview, Simmons additionally talked about Winfrey’s involvement in a documentary referred to as “On The Report,” which might’ve explored many sexual assault claims made in opposition to him. Winfrey ultimately dropped out of the mission after discovering “inconsistencies” in most of the accusers’ tales, based on The New York Occasions. Simmons even claimed Winfrey had “recordings of conversations with accusers that exposed these alleged inconsistencies.”
It’s necessary to notice Winfrey instructed The Occasions she believed Dixon was telling the reality about her assault. The publication added, “the filmmakers [of the documentary] say they’ve voluminous analysis recordsdata corroborating all the ladies’s accounts.” So with that, Dixon’s crew now needs all of the proof Winfrey allegedly needs to be dropped at court docket.
“You might be hereby commanded… to supply the books, data, papers, information, paperwork, evidences, writings, and all different tangible issues as described extra absolutely within the connected Schedule A at [law firm] Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, 55 Hudson Yards, New York, New York 10001, or electronically to undersigned counsel, on or earlier than March 18, 2025,” the subpoena obtained by Web page Six mentioned.
“You might be additional commanded… to seem and attend earlier than a notary public or different particular person approved by regulation to manage oaths,” it continued. “And at any recessed or adjourned date, to testify and provides proof, as a witness on an examination earlier than trial by deposition upon oral questions.”
Dixon is simply one of many many ladies who’ve beforehand accused Simmons of sexual misconduct. He has by no means been arrested or charged in connection to Dixon’s claims.