Lady Gaga defends Kesha's sexual assault claims in deposition for Dr. Luke lawsuit
Lady Gaga’s deposition by Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald’s attorney in the music producer’s ongoing legal battle with Kesha was unsealed Tuesday — and she was clearly Team Kesha.
The website the Blast obtained the 2017 deposition, which previously had been heavily redacted, and things got heated between Gaga and Dr. Luke’s legal team. At one point, Gaga told his lawyer she “should be ashamed” of herself.
It started with Gaga’s attorney advising Dr. Luke’s counsel that she is a sexual assault survivor and was having PTSD reactions as the deposition started. “She is crying now, the record will reflect,” Gaga’s lawyer noted.
Gaga explained how she met Kesha at Dr. Luke’s home studio — and said Kesha was in a back room wearing only underwear. She later talked about Kesha confiding in her about the alleged abuse. “What we discussed was, what I recall was her immense sadness and depression and fear,” Gaga said. “She was visibly very different than when I had seen her before, and — but I can’t say specifically what we spoke about. I just recall it was emotional and I wanted to be there for her.”
Things became heated when Gaga was asked whether she felt Dr. Luke’s reputation had been damaged after being accused of rape. “Reputation … if you are asking about his reputation in the world, I don’t feel at liberty to speak for the entire world,” Gaga replied. “So if you are asking what my view is of his reputation, I made my view of him and his reputation when I saw her in that back room. That was an image that — of something that happened to me, and I felt and knew in my heart that she was telling the truth, and I believe her.”
When an attorney suggested Gaga didn’t have any personal knowledge of abuse, Gaga shot back, “Yes, I do have knowledge. … She told me he assaulted her.” When pressed for knowledge beyond Kesha saying so, Gaga replied, “Well, you know — when men assault women, they don’t invite people over to watch.”
When the attorney replied that there are false allegations of rape, Gaga shot back, “You — how about all of the women that are accused of being liars and how she was slut-shamed in front of the world, how about that?”
After talking more about her knowledge of Kesha’s depression and trauma, Gaga added, “Why on earth would this girl tell the entire world this happened? Why on earth? Do you know what it’s like for survivors? Do you know what it’s like to tell people? Don’t you roll you eyes at me. You should be ashamed of yourself.” At that point, they took a break, the Blast reported.
Before Gaga was deposed, she wasn’t looking forward to playing a part in this high-profile case. In July 2017, her reps told Variety that “Dr. Luke’s team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga’s role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests.” She had only been somewhat involved in the legal battle, tweeting her support using the hashtag “#FreeKesha” and texting with her fellow pop star.
Free Kesha pic.twitter.com/8BjZXq98Qf
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 24, 2016
Those texts have also been part of the case, including some pertaining to Katy Perry. One text exchange had Kesha telling Gaga Perry could “bring the whole thing to a head, but she won’t.” The insinuation was that Perry was also assaulted by Dr. Luke. However, during Perry’s own deposition, she denied she was “raped by the same man,“ saying, “absolutely not.”
Further text exchanges that are part of the case and were made public had Gaga writing to Kesha that Perry “is probably really afraid to lose everything. U are really strong standing up to him, she’s not as strong as u yet.” Gaga offered to try to talk to Perry, but they agreed not to.
In November, Gaga’s rep said, “These text messages paint a picture of one friend trying to help another through an extraordinary difficult time. They are several years old and in no way reflect Lady Gaga’s relationship with Katy Perry. These are private texts that — along with personal information from other high-profile individuals — have been publicly filed to generate media attention for this case.” Gaga later publicly apologized to Perry on social media.
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