Nicki Minaj has denied bribery claims against her and her husband and says she “never offered any money in return for a statement,” according to AllHipHop.
As previously reported, Minaj’s husband Kenneth “Zoo” Petty is being sued by Nicole Hough—and has avoided a $20 million default judgment alongside Nicki—after she claimed that he and Minaj tried to intimidate her into silencing rape allegations against him from 1994. Petty was convicted of the attempted rape in 1995 and served four years in New York state prison.
Hough claimed that Nicki hired associates to reach out and offer her $500,000 to rescind her story. She also alleged that Nicki is affiliated with a gang. Minaj previously addressed the accusations in a filing last month.
“During the call, I never asked her to change her story; I never offered her any money in return for a statement, and I did not threaten her with any type of harm if she chose not to provide a statement,” Minaj reportedly claimed in legal documents obtained by the publication. “In fact, I emphatically told her that I did not want her to lie about anything and to tell the truth about what she had just revealed to me only if she was comfortable with doing so.”
Hough’s claims that Minaj is part of a gang focus on an October trip that Nicki took to Queens, when she and her husband visited a mural for Sean Bell. Minaj shared in the reported legal documents that she was approached by fans and friends at the scene, who are alleged to have thrown up Makk Baller Brims gang sings.
“While my husband and I recognized a few friends and acquaintances from the neighborhood that night, including Rico Danna, an artist whom I intend to sign to my label, none of them belong to any gang,” Nicki reportedly shared. “Further, we did not plan to meet anyone in advance because we had not planned to stop there. Once I came out of the car, the news traveled quickly, and people just showed up.”
In 2021, Petty pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender when he moved in with Minaj in California, and is currently awaiting sentencing, where he faces a maximum of 10 years and a lifetime of supervised release.
