Photo Credit: VOGUE Taiwan / CC by 3.0
The US Court of Appeals upheld the original decision in Cardi B’s $4 million defamation judgment against YouTuber Tasha K.
In another win for Cardi B, the US Court of Appeals upheld the original decision after her defamation lawsuit against YouTuber Tasha K was ruled in her favor in January 2022. Tasha, whose legal name is Latasha Kebe, appealed her case in hopes of reevaluation after being ordered to pay the Grammy-winning rapper $4 million in damages, but the court has dismissed her challenge.
Kebe asserted that the jury received insufficient evidence to examine and thus obtained an incomplete version of events. Still, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that Kebe forfeited her right to appeal after failing to properly make her arguments to the judge.
“Defendant Latasha Kebe asks for a new trial, saying that there was insufficient evidence for the jury verdict against her. But as she all but admits, she didn’t make either of the required post-verdict motions in the district court,” reads the court’s verdict.
“Kebe didn’t adequately brief her challenges to the district court’s evidentiary rulings. Specifically, she never tells us where in the 5,500-page record the district court’s alleged errors can be found,” the court concludes. “Because Kebe’s brief falls well short of what we require, she has abandoned this argument.”
Kebe’s decision to appeal seemed little more than a tactic to put off paying the rapper the money she owed.
“This is more than a hypothetical concern in this case,” Cardi B’s lawyers said in September. “During the litigation, Kebe bragged publicly that she had taken steps to insulate herself from a judgment. And there have been recent online reports that Kebe has moved from Georgia to avoid enforcement of the judgment.”
Naturally, Cardi B’s legal team is pleased with the court’s decision to uphold the initial verdict, telling Billboard, “We’re obviously pleased that the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the jury’s unanimous and important verdict, which we believe was more than amply supported by the evidence presented in the case.”